A 'famille-rose' enamelled porcelain 'fictional figures' snuff bottle
Famille rose enamels on colourless glaze on porcelain; with a convex lip and recessed flat circular foot surrounded by a protruding convex circular footrim; painted with a continuous scene from 'The Venerable Master Qiu's Encounter with Fairies'; the base with a band of formalized lingzhi echoed around the shoulders, the neck with a band of pendant leaf lappets; the lip gilt; the foot inscribed in iron-red seal script Maochun yazhi ('Elegantly made by Maochun'); the inner neck and interior glazed Maochun, Jingdezhen, 1796–1830 Height: 7.9 cm Mouth/lip: 0.75/1.50 cm Stopper: glass, carved as a coiled chi dragon; glass collar
Condition: Gold enamel on lip worn and some very minor abrasions to enamels from use; otherwise, kiln condition
Provenance: Elite Antiques, Hong Kong, April 2005 Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., July 2005
Published: Treasury 6, no. 1266
On Mao Chun, see Sale 2, lot 46. This is one of his rarer subjects and has the signature in seal script, which he used on only three of the works recorded so far, the rest being inscribed in regular script. The present scene is repeated at least once (Geng 1992, no. 175, with the signature in regular script). Geng identifies the subject: Qiuweng yuxian ji ('The Venerable Master Qiu's encounter with fairies'), collected in Xingshi hengyan (Sayings that arouse the world) edited by Feng Menglong (1574–1646). Old Master Qiu loves flowers so much that, moved by his passion, the Goddess of Flowers sends flower fairies to earth to help him solve problems. To show his gratitude, Old Master Qiu treasures flowers even more than before; he also performs many good deeds. Eventually he is elevated to be the 'Protector of Flowers' and becomes an immortal himself.
As was common with uncompressed forms from the mid-Qing onwards, instead of being made in a two-part mould and joined vertically, this was formed from the open foot, and a separate foot was added later, the interior glaze helping to seal the joint.
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