ATTRIBUTED TO BEIJING, 1730-1790

Details

**A FINE GREEN OVERLAY GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
ATTRIBUTED TO BEIJING, 1730-1790
Of compressed ovoid form, carved through the single pale green overlay on one side with two quail amidst millet and lingzhi, the other side with a rectangular vessel decorated with the Eight Trigrams and mask-and-ring handles, the vessel containing plum blossoms and bamboo, with two rolled scrolls set behind it on a rocky ground, tourmaline stopper
2 1/8 in. (5.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Arthur Gadsby (Hong Kong, 1978)

Literature

JICSBS, December 1978, p. 24, fig. 25
JICSBS, Autumn 1988, front cover
Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, Vol. II, no. 370
The Miniature World-An Exhibition of Snuff Bottles from the J & J Collection, p. 68

Exhibited

Christie's, New York, 1993
Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994
Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1996-1997
Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1997
Naples Museum of Art, Florida, 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, 2002
National Museum of History, Taipei, 2002
International Asian Art Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, 2003
Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2003

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

Two quail standing under stalks of ripe millet was a particularly popular subject at Court during the eighteenth century. The subject appears on a set of Imperial Jiaqing-marked porcelain bottles illustrated in Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, no. 94, and on the Imperial enamel on gold and coral bottle in the Baur Collection illustrated by B. Stevens in The Collector's Book of Chinese Snuff Bottles, no. 1032, which can now be dated to the Yongzheng period. See also the Imperial enamel bottle from the Vad Jelton Collection illustrated in Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 4, p. 26, figs. 1 and 2, which has a poem on the back suggesting the subject is an omen for a good year. An auspicious rebus also appears to be implied, since the Chinese character for "quail" (an) has the same sound as the character for "peace," and the ear of grain is a pun for "year" (sui), the combination suggesting a wish for peace year after year. There also may be a further association with courage, since the quail is a fighting bird, and was used in gambling matches with millet scattered between them to give them something to fight over.
The combination of the quail and the design on the reverse, which includes various symbolic flowers and a pair of scrolls and other scholarly trappings, including a vase decorated with the Eight Trigrams, is otherwise unrecorded.
For other glass bottles with pale green overlay on a bubble-suffused white ground, see D. Low, More Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, p. 128, no. 117; and Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 5, Glass, pp. 564-67, nos. 942-43.

More from Important Chinese Snuff Bottles From The J&J Collection, Part IV

View All