Page 141 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

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A RARE GUANGZHOU (CANTON) ENAMEL SNUFF BOTTLE The various fruit depict on this bottle can be understood to have
Qianlong blue-enamel four-character mark and probably of the period multiple meanings. Citrons (yuan 櫞) hints at the title conferred on the
The small pear-shaped body painted on in a continuous scene around scholar who came first in the highest imperial examination (known as
the flattened body with numerous fruit and leafy branches including a zhuangyuan 狀元). Pomegranates (shiliu 石榴), symbolise progeny.
peach, pear, artichoke, berries, finger citron, pomegranate, and a The Buddha’s Hand citron, which can be interchangeable with
bamboo shoot, silhouetted on a pipe-blown ground of primarily azure other citrons, together with the peach and pomegranate, are known
blue at the neck and paling to white and then graduated apple-green collectively as ‘The Three Abundances’ (sanduo 三多), which express
at the foot; stopper. the wish for abundant blessings, long life, and many sons.
45mm high
The branches and fruits, which include the ‘Three Abundances’
$4,500 - 5,500 subject, that are depicted on this colorful enamel bottle are reminiscent
of designs found on ‘famille rose’ bowls made for the court, during
擬清乾隆 1736-1795 銅胎畫廣東琺瑯「三多圖」鼻煙壺 the Yongzheng, Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. For several Jiaqing
《乾隆年製》藍料四字款 examples, see Ching Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection,
Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1973, no. 106; and also the Hong
Provenance: Kong O.C.S. catalogue Exhibition of Ch’ing Polychrome Porcelain,
The Field Collection 1977, no. 86 and subsequently illustrated in the The Powell-Cotton
Robert Kleiner, The Field Collection, 25 March 2004 Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Birchington, UK, 1988, col. pl. 16, no.
105, where it is shown together with the Qianlong prototype, no. 88.
Exhibited: For a vase of the same subject with a Qianlong mark, see Porcelains
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria, with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille rose Decoration, The
New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 102 Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong,
2008, p. 104, no. 90.
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