Footnotes

• Treasury 6, no. 1248
  
  瓷胎粉彩仙女鼻煙壺
  景德鎮官窯， 礬紅「嘉慶年製」篆書款，1796～1820
  
  A 'famille-rose' enamelled porcelain 'female immortals' snuff bottle
  
  Famille rose enamels on colourless glaze on porcelain; with a slightly concave lip and recessed, slightly convex foot surrounded by a protruding convex footrim; painted on each main side with a pair of female immortals within a framed quatrefoil panel, the panels surrounded by a formalized floral design on a pale lime-green ground; the outer footrim with a scrolling formalized floral band; the foot inscribed in seal script, Jiaqing nian zhi ('Made during the Jiaqing period'); the lip painted gold; the interior glazed
  Imperial kilns, Jingdezhen, 1796–1820
  Height: 6.37 cm
  Mouth/lip: 0.52/1.89 cm
  Stopper: coral; separate coral finial; gilt-bronze collar
  
  Condition: Some slight wear to gilding on lip; frames of the two panels and gilding on footrim worn off; otherwise, kiln condition
  
  Provenance:
  Robert Kleiner (1990)
  
  Published:
  Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, no. 141
  Kleiner 1995, no. 202
  Treasury 6, no. 1248
  
  Exhibited:
  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
  
  This was presumably made as a birthday gift, the symbolism predominantly relating to longevity. The Immortals represent this idea, for obvious reasons, as do the lingzhi with which they are so often associated. The peaches evoke the Peaches of Immortality grown in the garden of the Mother Goddess of the West (Xiwangmu). The cypress, like the pine, lives to a gnarled old age, and rocks of any kind both represent the same wish; even the narrow-side pattern of formalized floral scroll can be read to signify the same desire because of its elongated nature that, around the footrim, becomes continuous, representing life without end.
  
  For comparable bottles, see Treasury 6, pp. 552 – 553. This shape is one devised during the lifetime of the Qianlong emperor, probably during the latter part of his reign. There is a boxed set of twenty in the Imperial collection in Taipei of the same shape, but with flowers and poems (Chang Lin-sheng 1991, no. 74). The reign mark on the National Palace Museum set does not help us to propose a date relative to the emperor's abdication, since it uses a rare variant in which the lower-left quadrant of the character Qian does not resemble an 'S' either way around (see under no. 1177); we can say that this variant occurs later in the reign, but the significance of its use, if any, is unclear.
  
  The original type of stopper for these bottles seems to have been a matching porcelain one, imitating an Imperial or official hat for formal dress, but it is here replaced by a lovely old coral stopper of the same shape; it matches the bottle well, but suggests that the bottle was in circulation long enough to lose its original stopper, a common enough mishap.
  
  瓷胎粉彩仙女鼻煙壺
  
  瓷胎無色釉上粉彩；微凹唇，微凸斂底， 突出凸形圈足；兩正面有海棠形開光，其中各畫兩個仙女，隙地繪飾淡黃綠地彩連枝花卉紋，圈足外壁繪連續勾卷紋； 底書礬紅 "嘉慶年製" 篆款； 唇塗金彩，內壁施釉
  景德鎮官窯， 1796–1820
  高﹕ 6.37 厘米
  口徑/唇徑： 0.52/1.89 厘米
  蓋﹕ 珊瑚；可分離的珊瑚頂飾；鎏金青銅座
  
  狀態敘述：唇上的鎏金有所損耗，開光框和圈足的鎏金磨掉了；此外，出窯狀態
  
  來源:
  Robert Kleiner (1990)
  
  文獻﹕
  Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, 編號 141
  Kleiner 1995, 編號 202
  Treasury 6, 編號 1248
  
  展覽﹕
  香港藝術館，1994年3月～6月
  National Museum of 新加坡，1994年11月～1995年2月
  大英博物館， 1995年6月～10月
  Israel Museum, 耶路撒冷，1997年7月～月11月
  
  可以相比的鼻煙壺，參閱 Treasury 6, 頁 552 – 553。這種造型是乾隆皇帝生前設計的，大概是乾隆末期設計的。臺灣故宮珍藏有共儲於一木匣的二十件同式的帶乾隆年款的鼻煙壺 (張臨生 1991, 編號 74)。

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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