AN ENAMELED WHITE GLASS MEIPING-FORM SNUFF BOTTLE

IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO YANGZHOU, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN IRON-RED SEAL SCRIPT AND LATE IN THE PERIOD, 1770-1799

Details

AN ENAMELED WHITE GLASS MEIPING-FORM SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO YANGZHOU, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN IRON-RED SEAL SCRIPT AND LATE IN THE PERIOD, 1770-1799
The translucent milky-white glass bottle of meiping form and with a circular foot, painted with a continuous scene of a riverside village, with flying geese and a man in a wide-brimmed hat, seated in a partially covered skiff in the water, the foot inscribed in iron-red enamel, Qianlong nian zhi, (Made in the Qianlong period), gilt-metal stopper
1 15/16 in. (5 cm.) high

Provenance

Arthur Gadsby Collection, Hong Kong
Sotheby's, London, 6 December 1994, lot 11
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.

Lot Essay

Recent scholarship suggests that this distinctive group of bottles was produced for the Court from some time shortly after the construction of the Guyue xuan for the Qianlong Emperor in 1767. See Hugh Moss, "Mysteries of the Ancient Moon," JICSBS, Spring 2006, where the group attributed to Yangzhou is discussed on pp. 31 and 32 with several illustrated examples. In light of this recent research, it is now believed that this group was produced sometime between 1767 and the Emperor's death in 1799 and that any of the bottles with either the Qianlong reign mark or the Guyue xuan hallmark were made during that period.
For further discussion on the Guyue xuan, the designation for a small terrace in the intended retirement home of the Qianlong Emperor completed in 1767, see lot 40.
This is an unusual form for the Yangzhou group of Imperial enamels and seems to have inspired the enameller to produce a spectacular and unusual landscape.

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