Page 128 - Carl Barron Snuff Bottle Collection, CHRISTIE's Spet 12 2018

•742
A BLUE ENAMELED MOLDED WHITE PORCELAIN
SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, JINGDEZHEN KILNS, QIANLONG SEAL MARK
IN IRON RED AND OF THE PERIOD, 1790-1799
The cylindrical bottle is made in imitation of a blue-overlay glass
bottle and is molded in relief with two dragons chasing a faming
pearl above waves, all covered in bright blue enamel against
the white ground.
2æ in. (6.9 cm.) high, glass stopper
$5,000-7,000
PROVENANCE
Charles V. Swain Collection, Pennsylvania.
Asian Art Studio, Los Angeles, California, 2008.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 4793.
It appears that this pattern was popular during the Qianlong and
Jiaqing reigns. A Qianlong-marked bottle of similar proportions,
but probably from a slightly diferent mold, was in the Ruth and
Carl Barron Collection: Part I, sold at Christie’s New York,
16 September 2015, lot 224.
1790-1799年 御製白地模印藍彩雙龍戲珠紋鼻煙壺
礬紅方框四字篆書款
(mark)
742
•743
A WHITE JADE ‘BASKETWEAVE’ SNUFF BOTTLE
1740-1850
The bottle is carved with an overall basketweave pattern above
an oval rope band forming the foot.
2º in. (5.7 cm.) high, glass stopper
$6,000-8,000
PROVENANCE
Dennis G. Crow, Los Angeles, California, 1994.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts,
no. 1232.
It was common practice to protect large jars with an outer
casing of a variety of woven or plaited material, and snuf bottles
simulating a vessel tightly contained in a wicker basket or entirely
simulating basketweave are found in a variety of materials
including ivory, jade, amber, rock crystal, molded gourd and glass.
For a discussion on the series of ‘basketweave’ snuf bottles in
various materials see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese
Snuf Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 2, Part
2, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 450-1, no. 347, where it is suggested that
the design was a popular Imperial subject of the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries. The popularity of the basketweave
design in general at the Court may arise from the probable
symbolism of the basket (lanzi), which is a pun on male children
(nanzi), one of the three desires dear to the Chinese heart, which
are embodied in the term sanduo (‘Three Plenties’).
A more ovoid version of this type, with the plain neck rising from
the basketweave pattern, was sold at Christie’s, New York, 13-14
September 2012, lot 1120. Another type, where the entire bottle is
carved as a woven basket, is illustrated in ibid., Vol.1, Hong Kong,
1995, pp. 240-1, no. 98.
743 1740-1850年 白玉籮筐紋鼻煙壺
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