Page 132 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

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A BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE AN IMPERIAL BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE
Yongzheng mark, 1750-1850 Tongzhi underglaze-blue four-character mark and of the period, 1862-
Of oviform shape, painted in a continous scene around the body with 1874
a scholar, rather amusingly, riding backwards on a saddled donkey Of large rounded rectangular shape, painted with a continuous coastal
and looking upwards towards two of the Daoist immortals, one riding or lakeside mountain landscape scene with figures, buildings, pine and
a crane, the other a phoenix amidst swirling clouds, with his assistant other trees; stopper.
nearby on a grassy mound standing before the remaining six Daoist 2 1/2in (6.5cm) high
immortals, a ruyi-head band at the neck, stopper.
2in (5cm) high $1,800 - 2,500
$2,000 - 3,000 同治 1862-1874 御製青花瓷胎山水人物鼻煙壺 《同治年製》四字款

1750-1850 瓷胎繪青花道仙人物鼻煙壺 雍正款 Provenance:
John Ault
A blue and white cylindrical bottle with a design of the Eight Daoist Robert Kleiner, The John Ault Collection, 25 March 2002
Immortals is illustrated by Hugh Moss, Victor Graham, and Ka Bo
Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Literature:
Bloch Collection, Vol. 6 Part 2, Arts of the Fire, pp. 592-593, no. Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of John Ault,
1267, and bears a Jiaqing mark. Another, ibid., pp. 631-2, no. 1288, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 107, no. 189
confidently attributed to the Daoguang period, is similarly painted with ICSBS Journal, Spring 2002, inside cover photo (second bottle from
a scene of boys at play and has a near identical treatment of the neck right)
design.
Exhibited:
Another blue-and-white porcelain bottle with a design of the eighteen Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1977, Catalogue No. 88
Luohan rather than the eight Daoist immortals and also with an International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, New York, 5-9
apocryphal Yongzheng mark, is illustrated by Robert Kleiner, Treasures November 2013, no. 92
from The Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, Chinese Snuff Bottles
From the Collection of Denis Low, Singapore, 1999, p. 192, no. 165. Tongzhi marked bottles are quite rare, it being a relatively short-lived
reign (1862-1874), and produced at a time of great turmoil across the
Interestingly, blue-and-white porcelain snuff bottles, even of the very country. For another blue and white example of different form, which
high quality of this example, often bear apocryphal reign marks of not only bears a Tongzhi mark but has the addition of a cyclical date
the Kangxi and Yongzheng Emperors. It is not known if this was an (1864), see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham, and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury
attempt by the makers to mislead the buying public or was nothing of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.
more than a reign mark that simply paid homage to the great products 6 Part 3, Arts of the Fire, pp. 882-883. For a group of Daoguang-
produced during these reigns. marked blue and white ‘landscape’ bottles from the Anthony K.W.
Cheung Collection, see Tina Yee-wan Pang (Ed.), Heavenly Creations,
The shape of the present bottle certainly suggests it dates to the The University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong,
nineteenth century. 2005, pp. 89-90, no’s. 126-128.

The depiction of a classic Chinese landscape with small figures
dwarfed by the enormity of the natural world was popularized in
ceramic production during the seventeenth and eighteenth century
in a multitude of wares produced at the kiln sites at Jingdezhen in
Jiangxi province. Even at the end of the nineteenth century and the
waning years of the Qing Dynasty, this interest never diminished, even
in miniature form.
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