Page 30 - Bonhams Dicker Collection Snuff Bottles March 2015

1028 (two views)

1028
An enameled and slip-decorated Yixing snuff bottle
1800-1880
Of rounded rectangular form with a cylindrical neck, flat lip, slightly splayed oval foot ring, each
side with a recessed panel decorated with a slip design, one depicting two Pekinese frolicking
beneath flowers issuing from rockwork, the reverse side featuring two doves in a garden with
ornamental rocks, bamboo, and a butterfly in flight, all set against a ground covered with
cobalt blue enamel except the mouth and foot rims.
2 1/2in (6.4cm) high
$5,000 - 7,000

Provenance
Sotheby’s, New York, 6 April 1990, lot 249
Gettysburg Museum

Exhibited
Norton Museum of Art, September-November 1997

Paired dogs and doves, like other paired creatures, suggest conjugal bliss. Similar subjects are
seen on porcelain wares of the Qing dynasty as well. Other Yixing bottles of this design include
two illustrated by Bob C. Stevens, The Collectors’ Book of Snuff Bottles, John Weatherhill,
Inc., New York, 1976, pp. 102-103, nos. 334, 335, and 336, and one illustrated by R. Kleiner,
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, published to accompany
an exhibition at the British Museum, June 20th-October 15th 1995, p. 369, no. 241. A
Yixing bottle in this series with enameled decoration, but with landscape scenes set within
a blue-enameled surround, and impressed with a cyclical date, jiyu (1849) is illustrated in An
Imperial Qing Tradition, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Humphrey K. F, Hui and
Christopher C. H. Sin, no. 46.

掛藍釉宜興紫砂堆料動物紋飾鼻煙壺

28 | BONHAMS