Footnotes

• Treasury 6, no. 1181
  
  瓷胎畫粉彩三星祝壽圖鼻煙壺
  景德鎮宮窯，礬紅「乾隆年製」篆款，1780(或1795)～1799
  
  A 'famille-rose' enamelled porcelain 'Three Star Gods' snuff bottle
  
  Famille-rose enamels on colourless glaze on cobalt on porcelain; with a flat lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding flat footrim; painted with a continuous scene of the Three Star Gods (Fu, Lu, and Shou – representing good fortune, wealth and longevity), holding a ruyi sceptre, a hu tablet, and a peach, respectively, together with a child in a setting of rocks, a pine tree, lingzhi, and pink flowers, the scene interrupted by an auspicious inscription in regular script followed by two seals in positive seal script Pian and yue (together, 'A sliver of moon') and framed between underglaze-blue formalized borders picked out in gold enamel of lotus petals around the base and of lingzhi around the shoulders; the foot inscribed in iron-red seal script Qianlong nian zhi ('Made during the Qianlong period'); the lip painted gold; the interior glazed
  Imperial kilns, Jingdezhen, 1780 (probably 1795)–1799
  Height: 6.1 cm
  Mouth/lip: 0.62/1.44 cm
  Stopper: famille-rose enamels on colourless glaze on porcelain, moulded with a formalized floral design; John Charlton, London, circa 1972
  
  Condition: some wear to the gilding on lip, base, and in the main decoration; very slight wear to thinner black enamel; otherwise, kiln condition
  
  Provenance:
  Bellis Collection
  Robert Kleiner (1992)
  
  Published:
  Kleiner 1993, no. 68
  Kleiner 1995, no. 197
  Treasury 6, no. 1181
  
  Exhibited:
  British Museum, London, June–October 1995
  Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July–November 1997
  
  Here again we have the reversed 'S' element in the character Qian in the mark, probably indicating the period following the Qianlong emperor's abdication (see Sale 3, lot 117 and this auction, lot 158). Another feature of some of the porcelain bottles from the last years of the Qianlong emperor's life is the use of unusually small marks. This is an extreme case: not making full use of the ample space available, the mark writer has placed so tiny a rectangle in the centre of the foot that it is barely legible without a magnifying glass.
  
  The colourless glaze on the interior is unusual for a mid-Qing porcelain bottle. The earlier Qianlong examples in this collection, including all from the Tang Ying group, are glazed inside, but by the mid- to late Qianlong, most porcelain bottles were not. Glazed interiors were revived during the late Jiaqing to become the standard for the Daoguang and subsequent reigns. And yet here we have a glazed interior on a bottle that can be dated with some confidence (even without the evidence of the mark) to the last few years of the eighteenth century. This, therefore, is one of the earliest known examples of the revival of the practice. A convenient way of making uncompressed bottles appears to have been to form them in a mould and add a separate foot; this method made it necessary to seal the joint on the inside, and this was most easily done by glazing it. If this was one of the reasons for the shift back to glazed interiors, an uncompressed form such as this would naturally be among the earliest to exemplify that shift.
  
  Without its stopper, the form here would need very little adjustment to conform to the series of mid-Qing vase shapes that, no doubt, inspired it. In accordance with the requirements of a snuff bottle, the neck has been narrowed, and a short cylindrical mouth added to take a stopper (whereas the vases were fitted with a wide, domed cover with a finial); but the origin of the form is obvious enough.
  
  The couplet on this bottle may be translated
  
  Rejoice when good fortune and government appointment arrive at the same time.
  Celebrate the attainment of a thousand years at the place where the peaches of longevity ripen.
  
  瓷胎畫粉彩三星祝壽圖鼻煙壺
  
  瓷胎青花無色釉上畫粉彩； 平唇 ，平斂底，突出圈足，足底完全接觸地面 ; 通體繪福祿壽三星神，題吉語一聯，後鈐赤文"片"、"月"二印，底書礬紅 "乾隆年製" 篆款；唇塗金彩，內壁施釉
  景德鎮官窯，1780 (更可能是 1795)–1799
  高﹕ 6.1 厘米
  口經/唇經： 0.62/1.44 厘米
  蓋：瓷胎無色釉上粉彩琺瑯，模製形式化的花紋； John Charlton， 倫敦， 約 1972年
  
  狀態敘述：唇、底、圖案中的金彩九所損耗，淡的黑琺瑯呈微不足道的損耗；此外，出窯狀態
  
  來源﹕
  Bellis 珍藏
  Robert Kleiner (1992)
  
  文獻﹕
  Kleiner 1993, 編號68
  Kleiner 1995, 編號197
  Treasury 6, 編號1181
  
  展覽﹕
  大英博物館，1995年6月～10月
  Israel Museum, 耶路撒冷，1997年7月～月11月
  
  說明﹕
  乾隆底款到了十八世紀晚年才出現一種異體字，就是"乾"字下左的 'S' 成分是翻轉的。我們推測，這是弘曆退位後的寫法。本壺的底款呈現那種翻轉，因此我們推測是1795年以後製的。參見 第三場拍賣會， 拍賣品號 117 以及本場拍賣會，拍賣品號 158)。弘曆暮年的年號款也是比較小的，本壺的款特別小。
  
  內壁的無色釉就清中葉的鼻煙壺來說，是格外的。乾隆朝早期的瓷胎煙壺內壁都施釉，但到了中、後葉，就不施了。嘉慶晚年、道光年間才重新施內壁的釉。這件應該視為再施行內壁施釉的先鋒製品之一。
  
  
  
  
  

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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