Page 74 - September 21 2021 Curtis collections snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

670
A RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL SNUFF BOTTLE National Palace Museum in Taipei. Most of these are also decorated
Probably 18th century with large central roundels on the main faces set on a contrasting
Of bulbous spade shape, each main face with a central circular ground, see Yi-Li Hou (Ed.), Lifting the Spirit and Body: The Art and
medallion, one with a yellow and red peony flowerhead on a pink Culture of Snuff Bottles, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2012,
ground, the other with a multi-petalled chrysanthemum flowerhead pp.112-115, no’s. II-001 (Kangxi-marked), II-003, 11-004, and-II-005
in purple, puce red, white, blue and yellow on a pink ground, the (Yongzheng-marked). Later in the publication, ibid., pp.240-261, no’s.
remainder of the body with a turquoise-ground cracked-ice-pattern IV-014 thru IV-054, a large group of enameled glass examples, all
design with small equally-spaced red enamel prunus blossoms, the with Qianlong marks, are illustrated, which again all display a similar
neck with yellow enamel blossoms on a turquoise ground, the flat oval aesthetic. The raw quality of our example, which lacks the finesse
base and mouth formed from the exposed coppery-metal body of the of the some of the Palace examples, but which nevertheless carries
vessel. an honest early craftsmanship displayed in its pitting, undecorated
2in (5.1cm) high, stopper flat copper oval base and the subdued palette, certainly does bring
to mind cloisonné production of the seventeenth and eighteenth
$1,000 - 1,500 centuries.

或為十八世紀 銅胎掐絲琺瑯花卉紋鼻煙壺 For a Qianlong-marked cloisonné bottle with a Beijing Imperial enamel
floral roundel at the center, see Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles,
This intriguing bottle may be amongst the earliest of cloisonné bottle The White Wings Collection, Hong Kong, 1997, pp. 2-3, no. 1. See
production. It certainly shares certain traits with other early enamel another example of spade shape, that is dated to the first half of the
wares produced at the Palace workshops. It’s unusual design of a nineteenth century and decorated with a large formalized red and
single flowerhead set on a pink-ground roundel, itself placed on a yellow lotus flowerhead on a turquoise ground, illustrated in Chinese
formally decorated turquoise ground brings to mind a group of early Snuff Bottles from the Fernhill Park Collection, The Chinese Porcelain
bottles, some with Kangxi marks, others with Yongzheng marks, in the Company, New York, 1991, p. 44, no. 192.

72 | BONHAMS