Coco Li
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PROPERTY FROM THE FRANCINE AND BERNARD WALD COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES
Lot 220
A FINE LARGE IMPERIAL-YELLOW GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE 1750-1820
17 March 2025, 09:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$9,600 inc. premium
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A FINE LARGE IMPERIAL-YELLOW GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
1750-1820
Of flattened rounded shape and molded and carved in relief with a wide central band of stylized archaic dragons between relief molded lotus leaf petals and set against a very precisely engraved diaper cell ground to the upper and lower body and further bordered by more relief-molded lotus-leaf bands at the foot and the waisted cylindrical neck, the base very slightly convex within the rounded oval foot ring, the mouth edge flat.
2 9/16in (6.4cm) high, stopper
Of flattened rounded shape and molded and carved in relief with a wide central band of stylized archaic dragons between relief molded lotus leaf petals and set against a very precisely engraved diaper cell ground to the upper and lower body and further bordered by more relief-molded lotus-leaf bands at the foot and the waisted cylindrical neck, the base very slightly convex within the rounded oval foot ring, the mouth edge flat.
2 9/16in (6.4cm) high, stopper
Footnotes
1750-1820 精雅御用黃料刻仿古龍紋鼻煙壺一件
See Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 5, Part 2, pp.344-345, no. 828, where an almost identical bottle to Wald example, attributed to the Imperial glassworks in Beijing and dated between 1736 and 1770, is illustrated. The main difference is the addition of antelope head handles on the Bloch example. Otherwise, the remaining decoration bears close comparison.
Another remarkably similar example formerly in the Edmund F. Dwyer Collection, with buffalo-head handles and later sold at Christie's London, 12 October 1987, lot 73 and again in Christie's New York, 3 December 1992, lot 364, that has an unquestionably genuine engraved Qianlong mark to the base, also bears close comparison.
The archaistic-bronze-inspired decorative motif employed on this bottle, including the central stylized dragon band and the diaper cell ground that borders this, reflect well the Qianlong emperor's love of the ancient material culture. The Qianlong emperor even compiled and published a massive volume, illustrated with woodblock printed drawings, on his collection of ancient bronzes. The enormous effort and imperial enthusiasm devoted to this project, published in 1751, may have propelled the emperor towards the archaistic decorative trend of the first half of his reign. Mid-eighteenth-century palace artists were particularly inventive in their contribution to archaism, and this bottle displays such traits.