Page 142 - Sotheby's Important Chinese Art, Sept. 21-22, 2-21, NYC

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A RARE BEIJING ENAMEL ‘EUROPEAN 清乾隆 銅胎北京畫琺瑯西洋人物圖鼻煙壺 century, exerted a significant influence on the arts and Museum’s exhibition Small Delights: Chinese Snuff Bottles,
SUBJECT’ SNUFF BOTTLE 《乾隆年製》款 scholarship at the Qing Court. Jesuit artists, such as the New York, 2013-14; another, enameled with a European
MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG famous Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), worked alongside lady and a boy presenting her with a fruit, with the foot
來源： their Chinese counterparts in the Palace Workshops and encircled by a band of keyfret, sold at Christie’s New York,
of flask form, finely painted overall in famille-rose enamels, 巴爾 (1877-1959) 收藏 introduced European ideas and technologies to China, 20th September 2005, lot 429; a further snuff bottle, from
one side with a couple admiring a white porcelain gu-form including the technique of painted enamel, as seen on this the Meriem Collection, painted not only with a lady and a
vase in a garden, the woman holding the vase wearing a American Art Galleries，紐約，1916年1月17至19日， snuff bottle. Such cultural exchange inspired a completely boy, but also with buildings in the background and formal
colorful dress and with flowers pinned in her coiffure, the 編號93 fresh approach to decorated porcelains, metals and floral framing borders executed in a comparable style to
gentleman dressed in a pink and yellow overcoat and a black Kenyon V. Painter, Sr. (1867-1940) 及 Maud Wyeth glass, which continued to develop during the subsequent the present lot, exhibited in the Canadian Craft Museum,
trefoil hat over a white wig, verdant bushes and a European Painter (1885-1971) 伉儷收藏，此後家族傳承 Yongzheng (1723-35) and Qianlong reigns. The present Vancouver, 1992, and sold at Christie’s New York, 19th
castle in the background, the reverse side with a male bottle is a superb example of the genre of European subjects March 2008, lot 275; and a bottle decorated with a young
attendant dressed in a blue jacket and white wig presenting in the Qianlong period, as demonstrated by the enameller’s European couple on one side and three goats on the other,
a large peach to a woman, greenery and a European tower in This finely enameled snuff bottle is an exquisite miniature ability to express three-dimensionality and depth on this both sides connected by a continuous landscape, included in
the background, a large pink peony blossom on each of the work of art created by the Palace Workshops in Beijing, little container. The fine shading seen on the drapery and the exhibition Snuff Bottles of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Hong Kong
narrow sides dividing the pictorial cartouches, all framed by which masterfully unites traditional Chinese motifs with the background architecture derive from European painting Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, cat. no. 9, and sold at
scrollwork against a vibrant yellow ground, the foot and neck European subjects and techniques, and encapsulates the practices to convey pictorial perspective. Christie’s New York, 19th September 2007, lot 666.
each with bands of rosettes and petal lappets, the base with immense interest in foreign taste during the Qianlong period Although snuff bottles of this type are rare, a few Qianlong While women and children are often depicted on these
a four-character mark in blue enamel against a white ground, (1736-95). The European attendant is offering the lady a mark and period examples bearing a similar composition are containers, it is rather unusual to see a man with a hat
the gilt-metal stopper cast with floral scroll in relief (2) peach, a Chinese symbol of longevity, while the other lady is known. See, for example, one depicting an almost identical as shown on the present piece. Compare a similar figure
Height 1⅞ in., 4.8 cm holding a porcelain vase modeled after a Chinese archaistic woman and companion admiring a gu-form vase, rendered painted on an imperial enamel snuff bottle, illustrated in
vessel, known as a gu.
PROVENANCE Starting with the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722), the in a similar fashion to the present piece and perhaps painted Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, The Art of The
by the same hand, preserved in the Metropolitan Museum
Chinese Snuff Bottle: The J & J Collection, vol. 1, New York
Collection of A.W. Bahr (1877-1959). emperors of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) developed of Art, New York (acc. no. 21.175.314), included in the and Tokyo, 1993, pl. 170.
American Art Galleries, New York, 17th-19th January 1916, a fascination with European culture and style. Jesuit
lot 93. missionaries, who had been in China since the late 16th
Collection of Kenyon V. Painter, Sr. (1867-1940) and Maud
Wyeth Painter (1885-1971), and thence by descent.
$ 300,000-500,000

138 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10748 PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION 139