Page 229 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

Craftmanship during the Qing Dynasty reached its peak in the
18th century, and particularly during the Yongzheng and Qianlong
periods. The ever increasing innovation of craftsmanship and clever
means of amusing the Emperor’s appetite for novelties also found
its way in simlulating materials and objects such as producing
porcelain vessels imitating coral, bamboo, lacquer, gold and bronze,
or as exemplified by the present lot, simulating an object - in this
case, a clock painted on a porcelain snuff bottle. In fact the present
lot combines both effects, with its external gilt border, arguably
imitating gold or gilt bronze.
Compare an example from the Mary and George Bloch collection
illustrated by H.Moss, V.Graham, K.B.Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese
Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.6, Arts of
the Fire, Hong Kong, 2008, p.400, no.1178, and also see another
bottle with similar panels in the Palace Museum, Beijing, dated to
the Qianlong period, in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
Palace Museum: Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong, 2003, p.210, no.320.

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