Footnotes

Treasury 6, no. 1221


模製蒼白瓷胎竹雀雲蝠鼻煙壺
景德鎮，1790～1820


Bagged Bird

Crackled, colourless glaze on beige porcelain; with a flat lip and slightly concave naturalistic foot; moulded in the form of a cluster of bamboo stems, the larger ones making up the body of the bottle, the smaller ones on the surface and bearing leaves, from which a bag containing a trapped bird is hung, its head poking out from the top of the bag, the cord for the bag with two tassels, and with three bats flying in front of a cluster of formalized clouds against the bamboo stems; all exterior surfaces and the inside of the neck covered with glaze; the interior unglazed.
Jingdezhen, 1790–1820
Height: 7.74 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.75 and 0.80/1.30 and 1.40 cm. (oval)
Stopper: coral, carved as a twig
Condition: miniscule chip to the underside of the uppermost, ruyi-shaped cloud; slight gap on one narrow side where the two moulded halves have not met perfectly—original but filled with dirt, about 0.73 cm long; some natural abrasions to the glaze surface, invisible without magnification. General relative condition: extremely good. Stopper: two cracks in the coral, and a small area of wax filling


Provenance:
Robert Hall (1987)

Published:
Hall 1987, no. 64
Treasury 6, no. 1221

Commentary:
There are at least two others known bottles from this very rare and impressive mould, and it is possible, given their rarity, that production was very limited and only the one mould was ever made. The three extant pieces remind us that a single mould might give rise to several decoratively different versions. This one is covered with a monochrome creamy-white glaze, while another has brilliant famille rose enamelled decoration (Sotheby's, London, 3 December 1997, lot 408 ; also Christie's, New York, 19 September 2007, lot 611), and the third a much more subdued famille rose decoration, although the colour may have dimmed as the result of considerable surface wear (Sotheby's, New York, 15 September 1998, lot 155). We know that these originally had matching stoppers in the form of formalized clouds, since the first of the above-mentioned Sotheby's bottle still has one, but the others are absent. If the rare subject of the bird caught in a bag were not intriguing enough, the modelling and quality of this group is extraordinary, most appreciable on the two that appear virtually unused and have no significant wear or damage (this one and the first Sotheby's example). We believe that a Jiaqing date is almost certain for this little group, unless they come from the very last years of the Qianlong reign.

In symbolic art, a small bird (que) is often depicted to evoke the idea of attaining high-ranking official appointments (jue) on account of the phonetic similarity of the words having these meanings. The bird in a bag (daizi) provides homophones that express an even more fervent desire: descendants in many generations (houdai) all achieve high-ranking positions in their bureaucratic careers. Other auspicious symbolism embodied here includes abundant offspring (represented by the bamboo, a plant that proliferates at an amazing speed), longevity (the tassels providing a homophone, shou, to elicit this association), and good fortune (bats and clouds together supply the sounds of the term, fuyun).


一代竹雀顫，雙纓雲蝠翔

蒼白色陶瓷胎施密佈冰紋的無色釉；平唇，底足略凹；模印一束竹莖， 大的形成壺身，小的一枝懸掛袋，一鳥頭伸出袋口，袋有兩條流蘇，上部有雲紋與三隻蝙蝠；腹外壁、頸內壁施釉，腹內壁不施釉

景德鎮，1790～1820
高：7.74 厘米
口經/唇經：0.75、0.80/1.30 、 1.40厘米 （橢圓形）
蓋：珊瑚，雕小枝
狀態敘述：最上如意雲頭下邊有小缺口，壺一側面，前後兩段接合處有0.73厘米長的豁縫，是原來有的而現在塞滿灰塵，釉面有所磨損，而肉眼不可辨識，一般相對的狀態極善；蓋則珊瑚有兩道裂縫、一小部以蠟填補過

來源：
羅伯特．霍爾（1987）
文獻﹕
Hall 1987, 編號64

說明：
至少有另外兩件同模子出的鼻煙壺傳世。一件有華艷粉彩的畫飾（蘇富比，倫敦，1997年12月3日，拍賣品號408，還有佳士得，紐約，2007年9 月19日，拍賣品號611）；另一件有減淡的粉彩的畫飾（蘇富比，1998年9 月15 日， 拍賣品號155），顏色的減淡可能是因為相當的磨擦。蘇富比的那件煙壺保存原件的蓋，其他兩件按理說本來也是帶原件的蓋的。竹雀是常見的題材，但把麻雀塞進袋子，這才是奇異。這三件的造型也精彩，品質極高。我們認為它們是嘉慶年間作的，除非是乾隆末年。