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AN IMPORTANT IMPERIAL ENAMEL CHINESE-SUBJECT (Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin daxi. Shanghai: Shanghai
SNUFF BOTTLE kexue jishu chubanshe), 2002, p. 96, no. 147. It shares so many
Qianlong Mark and of the period (1736-95) characteristics with ours, including, a very similar main bird cartouche
Of rounded shape, decorated on one main face with a single long- with a blue stippled sky, the rocaille scroll surrounds, a dark coffee
tailed green-feathered white-breasted bird standing on blue taihe ground, pink landscape panels on the narrow sides, and a blue enamel
rockwork near large blossoming pink peony sprays and daisies and Qianlong mark.
a large, lilly flowerhead, two butterflies flitting nearby against a blue-
stippled sky, the other main face similarly decorated with depictions of Another also painted with butterflies and peonies on a stippled blue
the same birds standing on thorny branches amidst blue rockwork set ground is illustrated in Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National
amongst large chrysanthemum flowerheads, two butterflies nearby, Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991, p. 87, no. 21.
all set within a ‘rocaille’ cartouche with floral scroll edging, itself set
upon a dark coffee ground with smaller pink and white landscape For another Imperial enamel bottle also painted with a Chinese subject
cartouches on the narrow sides and further ‘pinks’ flowerheads, all (bats, waves and prunus) and a discussion of the evolution of enamel
above a blue ruyi-lappet band above the gilt copper foot rim and below design in the Qianlong period, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka
colorful leaf-lappets, a thin cell band, and a wider blue ground floral Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George
band at the neck and a gilt-copper mouth rim, the base enameled Bloch Collection, Vol. 6, Part 1, Arts of the Fire, pp. 230-232, no.
white and centered by the blue enamel four-character mark. 1107. For two bottles with very similar treatment of the side panels and
2in (5.1cm) high, stopper ground decoration, each with pink landscape vignettes on a scrolling
ground (and European ladies to the main panels), see Christie’s, New
$70,000 - 90,000 York, 2 June 1994, lot 505 and 1-2 December 1994, lot 560.The pink
landscape vignettes are common to highly Imperial production in the
enameling workshops of the Beijing Palace, whether on metal, glass or
清乾隆 御製銅胎畫琺瑯花鳥紋鼻煙壺 porcelain, and were also echoed in ceramic production at Jingdezhen.
《乾隆年製》藍料楷書款
For a superb Guangzhou enamel bottle with a brownish-black four-
Provenance: character Qianlong mark to the foot and painted with similar floral
Hugh Moss Ltd, November 1970 and butterfly scenes set within rocaille-bordered panels, see Robert
Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles, Masterpieces from the Rietberg Museum,
Published: Zurich, 1993, pp. 26-27, no. 7
The Antique Dealer and Collector Guide, Dec. 1970, p.95
Another enamel bottle delicately painted with birds and butterflies
Hugh Moss, An Exhibition of Chinese Snuff Bottles, June 1970, amidst peony and prunus set against a stippled blue ground is
p.82, #341 illustrated by Hugh M. Moss, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection
of the Rt. Hon. The Marquess of Exeter, K.C.M.G., London, 1974,
Bob Stevens, The Collector’s Book of Snuff Bottles, Tokyo 1976, pp.106-107, no. E.19.
no 982
For a discussion on the tell-tale fine white lines suffusing the entire
ICSBS, Journal, September, 1976, cover surface of our bottle and which we can also be found on many
Imperial workshop enamels, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka
Emily Curtis, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Emily Byrne Bo Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection,
Curtis, Newark, Soho Bodhi, 1982, plate #35 Vol. 1, New York & Tokyo, 1993, p. 288-289, no. 177. Problems
with the enameling on copper bodies and glass continued well into
The closest comparable bottle to ours and conceivably by the same the Qianlong reign. The slight incompatibility of enamel and metal in
hand is illustrated in two Palace Museum publications, the first, Xia a number of firings, often caused a break in the surface tension of
Gengqi and Zhang Rong, Masterpieces of Snuff Bottles in the Palace the painted layer, leaving a fine network of white lines or ‘pulls’ in the
Museum, Beijing, 1995, p. 64, no. 32 and the second, Snuff Bottles, design. Very few bottles are entirely free of this.
The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum,

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