Footnotes

• Treasury 6, no. 1245
  
  
  瓷胎粉彩人物風景鼻煙壺
  景德鎮，鐵紅嘉慶年款，1796～1820
  
  One of Eight
  
  Famille rose enamels on colourless glaze on cobalt on porcelain; with a flat lip and slightly convex foot; painted with a continuous garden scene with flowering peonies growing behind a convoluted, perforated rock formation and beneath a blooming magnolia tree, a branch of which comes down from the top of the scene on the other main side of the bottle and graces a depiction of a scholar holding a folding fan and seated in front of an ornamental rock dominating one narrow side, his servant boy standing in front of him in an open area bordered by a low fence, holding a vase of peonies, the scene framed top and bottom in underglaze-blue, detailed in gold enamel, with a formalized design of a band of lotus petals around the base and lingzhi around the shoulders beneath a neck band of flower heads, the foot inscribed in iron-red seal script, Jiaqing nian zhi (Made during the Jiaqing period); the lip painted gold, the interior glazed
  Imperial kilns, Jingdezhen, 1796–1820
  Height: 7.1 cm
  Mouth/lip: 0.60/1.74 cm
  Stopper: gold enamel on colourless glaze on porcelain, moulded with a formalized chrysanthemum design; not original
  Condition: very small chip on the underside of the lip at the upper neck-rim (0.35 x 0.20 cm) not very well restored; otherwise, in extraordinary condition with practically no surface wear. General relative condition: except for the chips, kiln condition. Stopper: twentieth century
  
  
  Provenance:
  Galia Baylin
  Sotheby's, New York, 3 October 1980, lots 98 and 99
  Hugh M. Moss Ltd., (1980)
  Belfort Collection
  
  Published:
  JICSBS, March 1976, p. 16, figs. 87, 88, and 89
  Snuff Bottles of the Ch'ing Dynasty 1978, p. 84, no. 113
  Jutheau 1980, p. 88, fig. 2
  Très précieuses tabatières chinoises, p. 5, figs. 7 and 8
  Kleiner 1987, no. 222
  Galeries Lafayette 1990, p. 8, no. 4
  Kleine Schätze aus China, cover and p. 9
  Agrar Post, Vienna, 9 June 1993, p. 20
  CA Live, Die Mitarbeiterzeitung der Creditanstalt, no. 3, 1993, p. 11
  Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, no. 142
  Kleiner 1995, no. 201
  Treasury 6, no. 1245
  
  Exhibited:
  Hong Kong Museum of Art, October–December 1978
  L'Arcade Chaumet, Paris, June 1982
  Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
  Galeries Lafayette, Paris, April 1990
  Creditanstalt, Vienna, May–June 1993
  Hong Kong Museum of Art, March–June 1994
  National Museum of Singapore, November 1994–February 1995
  British Museum, London, June–October 1995
  Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July–November 1997
  
  Commentary:
  This and the next, lot 108 (Treasury 6, no. 1246), are part of the famous set of eight bottles that was dealt with in Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, nos. 212 and 213. Apparently coming out of China in the 1960s, the set was split into pairs and sold to four prominent Hong Kong collectors. Apart from the pair offered here, the two in the J & J Collection came from the Arthur Gadsby Collection; two were in the Stempel Collection (Sotheby's PB84, New York, 11 October 1979, lot 63, thence to the Dane Collection and Skinner's, 26 April, 2008, lot 174), and two in the B. T. Lyons Collection (Sotheby's, London, 20 April 1982, lots 82 and 83, re-offered as part of the Exstein Collection in Christie's, New York, 21 March 2002, lots 71 and 72, and thence to the Meriem Collection and Christie's, New York, 19 September, 2007, lot 706 and Christie's, New York, 19 March, 2008, lot 216).
  
  As a rule, imperial porcelain bottles were made in sets of ten or even twenty, although smaller sets do exist. It is possible, therefore, that these eight magnificent bottles were once part of a larger set. The unworn condition of the known examples suggests that they made their way to Hong Kong from the imperial collection and were perhaps originally in a boxed set, for gold enamel wears very easily; there seems little chance that all eight would survive until the twentieth century without a scratch on them unless they were protected in the imperial collection. Given the sacking of the Summer palace and the nearby Yuanming yuan in 1860; the Allied invasion at the time of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900; the needs of the deposed emperor living in the Forbidden City for twelve years after the formation of the Republic with no source of funds other than the disposal of art treasures and other palace assets; the widespread corruption and disruption of the Republican period, and some sticky-fingered activities thereafter, the imperial collection has proved somewhat porous in the past. Museums and collections the world over are full of masterpieces from this vast treasure trove. We suspect that this set, along with quite a few other mint-condition masterpieces that are currently in our collections, have come from this source by one route or another.
  
  As we pointed out in the J & J volume, sets of imperial porcelains were standard during the mid-Qing period. Many remain in the imperial collection in Taipei, some in their original storage boxes (see Chang 1991, nos. 74, 75, 79, 80, 83–95), although no other set is quite like this rare group. On these sets and Qianlong and Jiaqing porcelain bottles in general, a standard method of formalizing the character nian (year) on seal-script marks creates a rectangular maze. On this set the same character is drawn with an alternative formalization that lacks the enclosing lines on each vertical side and across the top of the character. It is equally correct as a formalization, but it is a rare choice for a mid-Qing reign mark. This is another of the features that sets this group apart.
  
  There are several layers of meaning embedded in the two bottles in the Bloch Collection that, when added to the others in the set, represent a very wide range of auspicious symbolism. In the scene of the scholar relaxing in his garden, the vase (ping) of peonies held by the attendant conveys the meaning of the idiomatic expression, Ping'an fugui ([May you be blessed with] personal safety and wealth), the peonies representing wealth. The magnolia (yulan) and the peonies together evoke another idiomatic expression: Yutangfugui ([May your] magnificent hall [be filled with] riches). The ruyi shaped formulation of the lingzhi-heads around the shoulders represent wish fulfilment and the repeated lotus (lian)-petal motif around the base may have been intended as a pun on nian, eliciting the term niannian (year after year) to indicate the ongoing nature of all the auspicious omens.
  
  
  八件中之一件：木蘭香未歇，藍瓶貯牡丹
  
  瓷胎，無色釉裏青花紋飾，釉上施琺瑯彩；平唇、略凸底足；繪繞壺花園景觀，一正面繪木蘭樹與牡丹花，另一正面繪一學士坐在湖石前而欣賞其童子所持插藍色花瓶的牡丹花，景觀上下以釉裏青花紋飾為飾邊， 上邊為如意雲頭，下邊為蓮瓣 ，收腰頸繪一圈海棠紋，在青花勾線上均加飾釉上金彩，底鐵紅書"嘉慶年製"四字篆款；唇描金，器內壁施釉
  
  景德鎮官窯，1796～1820
  高：7.1 厘米
  口經/唇經：0.60/1.74 厘米
  蓋：陶瓷無色釉上施金彩，模印形式化菊花，非原件
  狀態敘述：捲唇下有修補不甚好的微小（0.35 x 0.20厘米）缺口，此外表面磨耗異常地少；一般相對的狀態：除缺口外，作坊狀態；蓋子：二十世紀作的
  
  來源：
  Galia Baylin
  蘇富比，紐約，1980年10月3日，拍賣品號98、99
  Hugh M. Moss, Ltd (1980)
  Belfort珍藏
  文獻：
  《國際中國鼻煙壺協會的學術期刊》Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, 1976年3 月， 頁16，圖87、88、89
  Snuff Bottles of the Ch'ing Dynasty 1978, 頁84，編號113
  Jutheau 1980, 頁 88, 圖 2
  Très précieuses tabatières chinoises，頁5，圖7、8
  Galeries Lafayette 1990, 頁8，編號4
  Kleiner 1987, 編號222
  Kleine Schätze aus China, 封面、頁9
  Agrar-Post, 1993年6月9日， 頁20
  CA Live, die Mitarbeiterzeitung der Creditanstalt, 第3 號，1993年，頁11
  Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, 編號 142
  
  Kleiner 1995, 編號 201
  Treasury 6， 編號1245
  展覽﹕
  香港藝術館，1978年10 月至12月
  L'Arcade Chaumet, 巴黎，1982年6月
  Sydney L. Moss Ltd, 倫敦, 1987年10 月
  Galeries Lafayette, 巴黎，1990年4月
  Creditanstalt, 維也納, 1993年5月～6月
  香港藝術館，1994年3 月～6月
  National Museum of Singapore, 1994年11月～1995年1月
  大英博物館, 倫敦, 1995年6月～10 月
  Israel Museum, 耶路撒冷, 1997年7月～11月
  
  說明：
  本壺與拍賣品號108是有名的一套八件煙壺之二件。Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, 編號212、213有論述。它們好像1960年代從中國出來之後就分成四雙，由香港四位收藏名家購買。J & J 收藏的一雙是Arthur Gadsby珍藏來的。一雙曾為Stempel 珍藏所收（蘇富比 PB84，紐約，1979年10 月11日，之後遷入Dane珍藏和 Skinner's 拍賣行，2008年4月26日，拍賣品號174）。另一雙為B.T. Lyons珍藏所收（蘇富比，倫敦，1982年4 月20 日，拍賣品號82、83，佳士得，紐約，2002年3月21日，由Exstein珍藏以拍賣品號71、72再出售，遷入Meriem珍藏，之後佳士得，紐約，2007年9月9日，拍賣品號706、佳士得，紐約，2008年3 月19日，拍賣品號216）。一般來說，御製成套的鼻煙壺是十件一套或二十件一套，這一套也許還有兩件未顯露出來。 這八件煙壺的金彩磨耗異常地微小，可推測他們是直接從故宮溜出來的，或許是同儲於一盒內。臺北故宮還收存儲存木盒成套的瓷胎鼻煙壺，參照Chang 1991，編號74、75、79、80、83～95和故宮清嘉慶釉 上彩花鳥紋鼻煙壺。
  
  本壺和上舉同一套壺跟其他乾隆、嘉慶瓷胎鼻煙壺不同的一個細節就是年款的"年"字的寫法。它沒有兩邊與上左角的長筆。這的確是篆體的正規字形之一，但在清朝中期是比較少見的。

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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