**A BLUE-AND-WHITE PORCELAIN FACETED SNUFF BOTTLE

JINGDE ZHEN KILNS, 1810-1850

Details

**A BLUE-AND-WHITE PORCELAIN FACETED SNUFF BOTTLE
JINGDE ZHEN KILNS, 1810-1850
Of vertically faceted, tapering cylindrical form with an octagonal section, with a recessed foot surrounded by a footrim, the sides decorated in underglaze-blue with a continuous scene of boys at play in a garden, all between line borders and below three bats in flight around the cylindrical neck, coral stopper with mother-of-pearl finial and turquoise collar
2 13/16 in. (6.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Robert Hall-Jutheau Auction, International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Auction, Boston, October 1991, lot 72.

Literature

Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles IV, p. 73, no. 72.

Exhibited

Canadian Craft Museum, Vancouver, 1992.

Lot Essay

The faceted shape of the bottle has its origins in bottles made for the court, although this example was probably made for a broader audience. The popular motif of boys represents the common wish for ample male children to continue the family line, but further symbolism resides in what they are holding. The book represents scholarship, while the kite symbolizes aspiration to high office. The bat (fu), one of the most popular rebuses in Chinese art, is a pun on the word for happiness or good fortune.

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