Coco Li
Cataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF EUGENE Y.C. SUNG IN TRUST
Lot 833¤
A RARE DATED BLUE OVERLAY OPAQUE WHITE 'DRAGON AND CALLIGRAPHY' BOTTLE Dated jiashen year, probably corresponding to 1824
9 – 19 September 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, New YorkSold for US$1,216 inc. premium
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A RARE DATED BLUE OVERLAY OPAQUE WHITE 'DRAGON AND CALLIGRAPHY' BOTTLE
Dated jiashen year, probably corresponding to 1824
Of rounded ovoid shape, carved through a vibrant blue overlay in high relief with writhing five-clawed dragon in profile to one side and an eight-character calligraphic panel ending in two seals with the jiashen date to the other, all divided by lion-mask fixed-ring handles on the narrow sides, the simple rounded oval foot ring cut from the overlay.
2 9/16in (6.5cm) high, stopper
Of rounded ovoid shape, carved through a vibrant blue overlay in high relief with writhing five-clawed dragon in profile to one side and an eight-character calligraphic panel ending in two seals with the jiashen date to the other, all divided by lion-mask fixed-ring handles on the narrow sides, the simple rounded oval foot ring cut from the overlay.
2 9/16in (6.5cm) high, stopper
Footnotes
甲申年 (或爲1824) 罕珍白地套藍料刻龍帶紀年銘文鼻煙壺一件
Provenance:
Eugene Y.C. Sung Collection, Ohio and New York
來源：
Eugene Y.C. Sung藏，俄亥俄州、紐約州
For a most interesting comparison of a bottle that shares many traits with our bottle but is decorated in white overlay on a transparent blue ground, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Volume 5, Part 3, pp. 558-561, no. 940. Like ours it bears an eight-character script followed by two seals that are engraved with a cyclical date (gengzi: 1780 in the Bloch example) and each have a similarly placed coiling dragon to the other side and lion mask fixed ring handles to the narrow sides. However, the authors do not rule out the possibility that the bottle might date to the following cycle date of 1840, rather than the earlier cycle of 1780.
Another example in red overlay was sold at Sotheby's New York, Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Robert & Molly Hsieh, 23 March 2004, lot 44 and another identical to the Hsieh bottle in the Imperial Collection is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum, Vol. 47, no. 54.
Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價。