Page 48 - September 21 2021 Curtis collections snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

637
AN ENAMELED OPAQUE WHITE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
Qianlong mark and of the period (1736-95)
Of squat rounded oval shape, painted in bright pastel enamels in a
continuous band around the body with large flowerheads of peony,
lotus and clematis amidst smaller flowerheads and leafy foliage, all
above a thin lotus-pad border with folded leaves at the foot and below
ruyi-head, leaf lappets and a scrolling frond band at the shoulder and
waisted neck, a fairly wide mouth and a shallow rounded oval foot ring,
with a four-character mark in blue enamel.
1 5/8in (4.2 cm) high; 1 3/4in (4.4cm) across, stopper
$12,000 - 18,000

清乾隆 料胎畫琺瑯纏枝花卉鼻煙壺 《乾隆年製》藍料楷書款

Provenance:
Sotheby Parke Bernet 21 November 1974, lot 12

Published:
Emily Curtis, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the collection of Emily Byrne
Curtis, Newark, Soho Bodhi, 1982, col. plate, no. 38

Journal of Glass Studies, Corning Museum of Glass, v.39, 1977, p.78,
fig. 5

This bottle is also illustrated in a sale catalogue, Sotheby’s, New York,
27 June 1986, lot 234, where it was consigned by Emily Byrne Curtis.
However, for reasons unknown, she decided to keep the bottle and it
was withdrawn from the auction.

For another opaque white glass bottle attributed to the Beijing Palace
workshops and signed Yuchuan, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and
Ka Bo Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection,
Vol. 1, pp.336-338, no. 196. The size and shape are similar and the
painting style certainly consistent. It too has a formalized band at the
waisted neck and a band of ruyi-headed collars at the shoulder. For a
bottle of slightly more Imperial type and similarly painted with a lotus
pond in a continuous scene around the body on a pearly, translucent
glass and also attributed to the Palace workshops in Beijing, see Moss
et. al., ibid, pp.320-321, no. 188.

For a slightly larger bottle decorated with quails in a garden with
chrysanthemum and bamboo that follows closely the so-called
Guyuexuan types, See Sotheby’s, Hong Kong. Snuff Bottles from the
Mary and George Bloch Collection: Part VI, 26 May 2013, lot 228. It
has a similar treated collar and neck band.

46 | BONHAMS