Page 9 - Bonhams Indian Private Collection of Snuff Bottles March 2016 New York
P. 9
6002 (two views)
6002 The katydid, pronounced guoguo in Chinese, creates a pun for the
A FAMILLE ROSE ENAMELED PORCELAIN ‘KATYDID’ word ‘country’ (guo). The image of katydid with a yellowish or gold
SNUFF BOTTLE cage produces a rebus for the phrase of jinzhong baoguo, which can
Imperial, Jingdezhen kilns, Daoguang mark and of the period be interpreted as ‘to be loyal to one’s country’. When a bottle with this
1821-1850 design was gifted to a court official by the emperor it would be seen
The ovoid bottle rising to a gently waisted neck, rounded lip, as both a recognition and a reminder of the essential virtue that any
sensitively painted in enamels with black penciled details depicting a official figure had to carry.
katydid on an overturned cage, the reverse featuring the same insect
with long thin antennae, the concave foot with the four-character 1821-1850年 清道光 御製粉彩蟈蟈鼻煙壺 《道光年製》礬紅篆書款
mark in seal script.
2 3/4in (7cm) high
$4,000 - 6,000
Compare another Daoguang-marked bottle, decorated with a katydid
on a cage on one side, and a single katydid on the reverse, illustrated
by Moss, Graham, Tsang, in A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The
Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 6, Part 3, Hong Kong, 2008,
pp. 690-1, no. 1318.
CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES FROM TWO AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTIONS | 7
