Footnotes

Treasury 7, no. 1658


玉髓玳瑁鼻煙壺
推定為宮廷作坊作，北京，1723年左右


Taklamakan Sunrise

Translucent carnelian-agate, and tortoiseshell; made up of three segments of tortoiseshell, one for the main frame, one for the neck, and one for the foot, and two convex panels of carnelian-agate; with a flat lip and protruding concave foot with a very shallow convex foot rim
Attributed to the palace workshops, Beijing, probably circa 1723
Height: 3.6 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.57/0.85
Stopper: pearl; silver collar
Condition: Tortoiseshell surround: some internal fracturing around both inlaid panels, probably due to different expansion qualities between the two materials, creating stress; some stress marks in the neck where two pieces are joined, and three stress cracks in the neck about 0.32 cm long; two small old chips in the footrim; the centre of the foot drilled neatly with a conical hole for no known reason—the natural wear around and inside suggesting it is a very old, if not original, drilling. General relative condition: reasonable, considering its age and the delicacy of the material

Provenance:
Thewlis Collection (1990)
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd. (1992)

Published:
Thewlis 1990, no. 87.
Treasury 7, no. 1658

Commentary:
This extraordinary little bottle has an exact counterpart in the Kay and Ian Hardy Collection, although missing its original foot. It is likely that a small series was made, perhaps from a single source of carnelian agate with evocative markings. It is a lovely material, and has the honey-comb markings associated with imported, 'western agate' as it was known in China (see Treasury 2, no. 258). This gives a powerful effect, in one of the agate panels, of sunrise in the desert.

The construction method here is similar to that of the tortoiseshell bottle in the Bloch collection without panels of a different material (Treasury 7, no. 1565). The main frame is made from manipulated tortoiseshell, which is thermoplastic and can be easily bent and manipulated (see under Treasury 7, no. 1565), and the complete lack of any join allows only one way in which this can have been achieved: by taking a flat sheet, cutting a hole in it, and then manipulating the disk shape into the curved form of the frame. To this are then added the cylindrical neck and the foot - both of which are clearly separate pieces with obvious joints visible with transmitted light. This method of construction makes the main frame far stronger than it would have been had the easier method been used of taking a strip of material and bending it into a circle and joining the two ends. The joint would always be a weak point and be under tension from the natural spring in the bent material.

The wear on both this and the Hardy bottle is considerable. This may be less convincing of old considerable age in a single example, but when the only two known examples are both very well worn, it is a more reliable indication of age. The concept of inlaying circular panels of one material into a bottle of another was first used as early as the Kangxi period in the palace workshops, as there are two Kangxi enamel bottles with inlaid panels. One is inlaid with moulded-gourd panels (Li Jiufang 2002, no. 128), the other with Japanese lacquer panels (Chang Lin-sheng 1991, no. 3). There is also the coral bottle with similarly inlaid panels of enamelled gold in the Baur Collection that bears a Qianlong reign mark, but seems to match a record of manufacture in 1728 from the archives of the palace workshops (see Treasury 6, no. 1073). This method of construction was obviously an early standard at court, and the fact that there are two identical bottles with carnelian panels would also be typical of courtly production. It is also clear that during parts of the Yongzheng reign, relatively small bottles were popular.
Combining all these features we feel justified in tentatively linking this bottle to palace workshops production in the first year of the Yongzheng reign. In the Qinggong Neiwufu zaobanchu dang'an zonghui [Comprehensive compendium of Imperial Household Department workshop crafts archives from the Qing palace - Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2005), vol. 1, p. 4a, there is an entry for 1 September 1723 describing a snuff bottle with hawksbill turtle shell walls inlaid with agate. Since shell bottles of this type inlaid with agate are extremely rare, it seems likely that a small group of the type was made at the palace workshops in the early Yongzheng reign, and that this and the Hardy examples have survived.


塔克拉瑪干沙漠的日出

透明玉髓與玳瑁；環架、頸、足各由玳瑁一片作，嵌有二面圓形玉髓凸面嵌板；平唇、突出凹底、甚淺凸形圈足

推定為宮廷作坊作，北京，1723年左右
高：3.6 厘米
口經/唇經：0.57 /0.85 厘米
蓋：珍珠，銀座
狀態敘述：玳瑁環保架在嵌板緣有內部的應力破裂，大概是不同材料的不同膨脹率導致的；頸部二片玳瑁接處亦有應力破裂，頸部中有0.32厘米長三個應力破裂；圈足中有兩個比較舊的缺口；底中心有整洁地鉆通的圓錐形的洞，不知為何，但周圍和內部的蝕耗顯示，洞是舊的，或許是原來就有的；一般相對的狀態：考慮到本壺有很久的歷史而材料是校脆弱的，狀況適當

來源：
Thewlis 珍藏 (1990)
Hugh Moss (HK), Ltd (1992)
文獻﹕
Thewlis 1990， 編號87
Treasury 7， 編號1658

說明：
這件小煙壺有Kay 和Ian Hardy 珍藏配對的一件，那件只缺原來的底足。它們好像代表一小系列的鼻煙壺，大概是同一塊玉髓作的。本壺一嵌面讓人想象沙漠上旭日東升，實在是悅目賞心的材料。

玳瑁是可熱塑性的。本壺的玳瑁上找不到任何接縫，可知它是先剪出璧形的一片，再加熱使之彎曲而形成煙壺的架構。然後接上筒形頸部的底足就是。有接縫的架構總是具有應力點，要抵抗玳瑁的張力還是沒有接縫結實。

本壺和Hardy珍藏的姊妹壺呈相當的蝕耗，因為是不同來歷的兩件都呈現相似的蝕耗，可推測不是偶然的，是物品比較舊的指標。不同材料的嵌板式鼻煙壺從康熙年間就有。有嵌入模印葫蘆板的（Li Jiufang 2002， 編號128）；亦有嵌入日本漆板的（Chang Lin-sheng 1991, 編號3）。而不但是這種結構法為早期朝廷的一個規範，小型鼻煙壺也是雍正年間有時候很受歡迎的。這兩件煙壺很可能代表一套同型的煙壺，而清朝廷常成套製煙壺，這是朝廷方坊來源的旁證。《清宮內務府造辦處檔案總匯》第一冊，頁4上，雍正元年（1723）正月九日記載玳瑁嵌瑪瑙的鼻煙壺，因為這種煙壺如鳳毛麟角，我們推測雍正初製造了一些此類煙壺，而本壺與Hardy珍藏的為其中幸存的兩件。