Page 133 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

512
A RARE COBALT-DECORATED BISCUIT PORCELAIN ‘DATED’
SNUFF BOTTLE
With cyclical date wuxu year probably corresponding to 1898
Of rectangular shape with short cylindrical neck and oval foot ring,
painted on each unglazed main face with figures in a landscape
scenes below inscriptions including the date, all in cobalt firing to a
black tone; stopper.
2 3/4in (6.9cm) high
$2,200 - 2,800

戊戌年（或1898） 素胎繪「漁僬問答」人物署年鼻煙壺

Provenance:
John Ault
Robert Kleiner, The John Ault Collection, 16 September 2010

Exhibited:
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, New York, 5-9
November 2013, no. 134

The cyclical date on this bottle is not combined with a reign name
so we can only suggest a production date of 1898. A date of 1838,
the previous cycle, whilst not impossible seems unlikely, given the
pendant neck decoration which seems more in keeping with late Qing
production and the use of cobalt on the biscuit without a covering
glaze, thus rendering the blue to a black pigment. This is interestingly
highlighted at the rim of the mouth where the blackened cobalt can be
seen to return to its natural blue color where it is covered by the glaze.

A blue and white example with similar scenes was sold at Sotheby’s,
The Neal W. and Frances R. Hunter Collection, New York, 15
September 1998, lot 167.

THE MANFRED ARNOLD COLLECTION OF CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES | 131