Bonhams 1793 : A 'famille-rose' enamel on porcelain 'lotus and chrysanthemum' snuff bottle Qianlong iron-red four-character seal mark and of the period

A 'famille-rose' enamel on porcelain 'lotus and chrysanthemum' snuff bottle Imperial kilns, Jingdezhen, Qianlong iron-red four-character seal mark and of the period

24 Nov 2012 10:00 CST Hong Kong
The Paul Braga Collection of Snuff Bottles
Back to auction 20524

A 'famille-rose' enamel on porcelain 'lotus and chrysanthemum' snuff bottle

Qianlong iron-red four-character seal mark and of the period
Of compressed globular form with a short waisted neck, resting on a slightly concave oval foot, brilliantly enamelled with two lotus flowers on the central body and two chrysanthemum at the sides, surrounded by stylised floral scroll, set against a dense and vivid ground of tighter formalised floral scroll picked out in iron-red, all below a turquoise ruyi-shaped collar at the neck and above a band of lappets at the foot, the neck decorated with a stylised floral scroll in gold against an orange-beige ground, the base inscribed in iron-red with four-character mark within a square.
4.2cm high.

Sold for HK$ 3,620,000 inc. premium

Footnotes

Exhibited:
Chinese Snuff Bottles, jointly presented by Hong Kong Chinese Snuff Bottle Collectors Study Group and the Urban Council, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 15 October to 26 November 1977

Illustrated:
Paul Braga, Hong Kong Chinese Snuff Bottle Collectors, Arts of Asia, November-December 1976, Vol.6, p.84
The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Journal, Vol.10, Number 2, JICSBS, June 1978, p.44, pl.91
Chinese Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1977, p.52, pl.91

The only published comparable example appears to be a very closely related snuff bottle from the Qing court collection, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum 47, Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong, 2003, p.195, pl.305 (fig.1). The Palace Museum example shares the same four-character reign mark inscribed in iron-red enamels, and is enamelled with identical decorative schemes, differing from the current lot only at the neck where the Palace Museum example is enamelled with stylised floral scrolls.

The distinct four-character Qianlong reign mark on this bottle is shared by two other bottles from the Mary and George Bloch collection, illustrated in Moss, Graham and Tsang A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.6, Arts of the Fire, Hong Kong, 2008, pp.335-342, nos.1150 and 1151. The latter is a 'double-gourd' snuff bottle that was sold in these rooms, 23 November 2010, lot 121, and illustrated on the cover. The authors present a compelling argument that these two snuff bottles were most likely produced under the supervision of Tang Ying in the early Qianlong period. This argument can be applied to the current lot, which is endowed with an enamelled design of similar exquisite quality, with a similarly meticulous floral design and floral ground.

清乾隆粉彩錦上添花纏枝勾蓮紋鼻煙壺礬紅「乾隆年製」篆書款

展覽：
香港中國鼻煙壺收藏家學會、香港市政局聯辦，《中國鼻煙壺》，香港藝術館，1977年10月15日至11月26日

出版：
Paul Braga，《Hong Kong Chinese Snuff Bottle Collectors》，Arts of Asia，1976年11-12月，頁84
《中國鼻煙壺》，香港藝術館，香港，1977年，頁52, 編號91。

壺作扁瓶形，豐肩，鼓腹，長頸微束，直口描金，平底，碧璽蓋。壺身以胭脂紅彩作錦地，上再以粉彩繪四朵勾蓮花纏枝紋。頸部整體施醬釉，描金繪卷雲紋一周。肩部與近足處分別以綠地粉彩繪一周變形如意雲頭紋及繪蓮瓣紋。底部露出糯白色瓷胎，署礬紅「乾隆年製」篆書印章款，款識周圍描金依稀可見。

唯一可查與本壺形制及紋飾基本一致的另外一隻粉彩勾蓮紋鼻煙壺現藏於北京故宮博物院，屬清宮舊藏。詳見李久芳、張榮編《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集：鼻煙壺》，香港，2003年，頁195，編號305（fig.1）。其紋飾結構安排以及底部的礬紅「乾隆年製」四字篆書款均與本壺如出一轍，而唯一不同的是，故宮博物院所藏之器在頸部則是分別以紅地及黃地粉彩繪如意紋及纏枝蓮紋。

有書寫「乾隆年製」四字篆書款的粉彩瓷胎鼻煙壺，也見於瑪麗及莊智博夫婦鼻煙壺收藏中，詳見莫士撝, Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶著，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，第6冊，第一部份，頁335-342，編號1150、1151（其中1511號煙壺曾刊登於香港邦瀚斯瑪麗及莊智博鼻煙壺珍藏：第二部分圖錄封面，並於2010年11月23日拍出）。筆者在文中論述認為此類攜四字篆書紀年款的鼻煙壺因其用彩講究、繪工細緻，應屬乾隆早期景德鎮御窯廠督陶官唐英任職時期所製作的作品。