Page 136 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

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A SMALL BLUE AND WHITE AND IRON-RED AND GILT See Jan-Erik Nilsson, Goteborg.com, Glossary, Jurentang (Hall
PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE where Benevolence Resides) for a lengthy discussion on the wares
Juren (Tang) two-character mark to the base, circa 1916 produced bearing this mark. The hall in Zhongnanhai (a compound
Of rectangular shape, painted on each main face within a molded in Beijing) was the building in which Yuan Shikai lived and also where
border with a coastal or lakeside figural landscape scene, the narrow he had his office around 1915. It was a Russian-style reception
sides with an iron-red textile-pattern-ground with wan symbols and the hall built by Guangxu and named Hoi Yin Tang, (Yiluan Dian) and
neck with a fish-roe design, highlights in gilt; stopper. renamed ‘Jurentang’ by Yuan Shikai when he took up residence in
1 3/4in (4.6cm) high the building, initially as President of China. In 1916, a certain Guo
Baochang was appointed by Yuan Shikai to oversee the production
$4,000 - 6,000 of imperial Hongxian wares. It appears that at this time or perhaps for
a few years afterwards, ceramics bearing the Hongxian mark or the
1916年前後 青花礬紅瓷胎飾描金開光山水鼻煙壺 《居仁》款 Jurentang mark were produced to quite a high level of sophistication at
Jingdezhen. Yuan Shikai stood down as the Hongxian Emperor on 22
Provenance: March 1916 after 83 days on the throne; resumed his presidency; and
Sotheby’s, New York, 31 May - 1 June 1994, lot 713 Mary and George died in June 1916.
Bloch, Hong Kong
Bonhams, Hong Kong, Snuff Bottles from the Mary and George Bloch See also Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, Treasury,
Collection, Part IV, 28 November 2011, lot 148 Vol. 6, Part 3, Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 892-893, no. 1424, for a full
Robert Kleiner, 15 January 2012 description of this bottle and the recorded other examples from this
small group. Another with the same mark is illustrated by Hugh Moss,
Literature: Snuff Bottles of China, London, 1971, no. 326 and also illustrated
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, Treasury, Vol. 6, Part 3, by Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles III, London, 1990, no. 70. That
Arts of the Fire, Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 892-893, no. 1424 this group is associated with both this brief reign and his personal
hall name seems confirmed by another example formerly in the J & J
Exhibited: Collection which bears a Hongxian reign mark and the same iron-red
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria, decoration and blue and white panels but on a circular not rectangular
New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 138 form bottle, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, The
Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, Vol. 1, New York,
1993, p. 385, no. 226 and another (possibly the same) illustrated by
Hugh Moss in an illustrated handlist ‘The Barron Collection’ produced
for the ICSBS Convention in Boston in 2008, p. 41, no. 4550.

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