Page 20 - Chinese works of art and paintings, March 19 Bonhams

(two views)

8027
A RARE EARLY GUYUE XUAN ENAMELED GLASS SNUFF
BOTTLE
Imperial Place Workshops, Beijing 1769 Whereas the majority of the Guyue xuan bottles are designated as
The milky-white glass bottle with a flat, flaring lip and a flat oval foot, such by the standard three character iron red mark on the foot, this
with a neat leiwen border in iron red at the neck, a band of lingzhi bottle bears a four character Qianlong Nianzhi reign mark on the foot,
heads around the shoulder, one face with enameled lotus in pink and with the Guyue xuan connection indicated by two painted seals--Gu
green, the leaves delineated in black, reversed with a poem in regular and Yue--that follow the poem. Other bottles from this same small
script in iron red, dated jichou xia ri (1769, summer day), followed by group bear the reign marks around the neck, or adjacent to the
two painted seals reading gu and yue, the foot with a four character poem, in addition to displaying the Gu and Yue painted seals.
mark in regular script in iron red.
2 1/2in (6.5cm) high A few other white glass enameled bottles from this interesting and
precisely dated group have been offered in recent years. One from
$8,000 - 10,000 the J & J collection dated 1767 was sold at Christie’s New York on
22 March 2007, lot 43. Two others, formerly in the collection of Mary
1769年 白料畫琺瑯花鳥蓮紋鼻煙壺 《乾隆年製》款 and George Bloch, one dated 1768, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong
Kong 26 November 2013, lot 145; and one dated 1775 was sold at
This interesting enameled glass bottle is from a fairly small group of Bonham’s Hong Kong 27 May 2012, lot 62.
bottles, several of which are precisely dated, that were produced
within the Forbidden City between the years 1767 and 1775. It is This compelling group has been carefully studied by Hugh Moss in
theorized that the bottles were created with the intent of being gifted “Mysteries of the Ancient Moon”, ICSBS Journal, Spring 2006, pp.
by the emperor, perhaps during the Autumn hunt. 16-32, and further explored in Moss, Graham and Tsang A Treasury
of Chinese Snuff Bottles, vol. 6 pp. 182-194.
Adorned with lotus or chrysanthemum, these bottles would
frequently feature a poem or poetic couplet in regular script written
with iron-red enamels. On this bottle the poem was authored by the
Ming dynasty painter Chen Chun (Chen Daofu, 1483-1544). The
poem also appears in the Siku Quanshu, 24-87b.

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