Page 53 - The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part I

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TWO UNDERGLAZE-BLUE-DECORATED SNUFF BOTTLES
1800-1850

Both bottles are of cylindrical form, one is decorated with a stag and a
doe, the other with an overall ground of mottled blue tones.
3º and 3¿ in. (8.1 and 7.8 cm.) high, stone and glass stoppers (2)

$1,000-1,500

PROVENANCE:

Blue and white bottle: Belfont Company Ltd., Hong Kong, 2001.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 3104.
Monochrome bottle: Robert Kleiner, London, 2003.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 3775.

The blue-ground bottle is a rare example of an underglaze monochrome
snuff bottle. Known as “powder blue” in the West, the mottled blue effect
was diffcult to achieve in a uniform manner. After glazing a piece with
with the color, while the body was still humid, the painter would blow
across the surface through a bamboo tube covered with gauze. Wares
decorated with a powder-blue ground were popular in the Kangxi period,
when the technique was discovered, and experienced a renewed popularity
in the nineteenth century.

1800-1850年 青花雙鹿圖鼻煙壺及灑藍釉鼻煙壺各一件

Ψ 262
A CARVED AMETHYST SNUFF BOTTLE
1750-1830

The bottle is carved in the shape of a small fruit, possibly a bitter
melon, with a branch around the shoulders bearing a smaller fruit.
2 in. (5 cm.) long, jadeite stopper

$1,600-2,400

PROVENANCE:

Robert Kleiner, London, 2003.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 3785.

This well-carved bottle is part of a series of amethyst bottles of pale,
mottled material that often feature superb carving. Many of the group are
fruit forms, suggesting a likely Palace origin, or at least a group made for
262 the Court. The shape of the present example, possibly representing a bitter
melon or lychee, is unusual, as is the sharply carved faceting.

1750-1830年 紫晶雕「錦荔枝」鼻煙壺

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