An extremely rare and very fine Beijing enamel 'European Landscape' snuff bottle Blue enamel mark and period of Qianlong

the small, slightly flattened, circular body tapered to an oval foot and rising to a circular mouth, the sides decorated with circular panels exquisitely painted in puce enamel in precise detail, one side with a tranquil twilight scene of a river meandering past banks of tall trees and a house, a donkey grazing in the foreground, the full moon above in a dark cloudy sky reflected on the calm surface of the water, the reverse with two peasants working in a hilly field, with a large house on the knoll and two cottages behind trees, both scenes framed by twisted cord borders which also encircle the neck against a soft blue ground highlighted with colorful floral scrolls, all between classic scrolls in green at the neck and foot, the base inscribed with a four-character mark; the gilt-bronze stopper cast with a classic scroll surrounding a central floret

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5th November 1997, lot 2176. 
Christie's Hong Kong, 29th April 2002, lot 526. 

The present snuff bottle is a fine and rare example of the exquisite wares produced in the Enamel Workshop within the Zaobanchu (Imperial Household Department). The puce enamel scenes may be attributed to the influences of European enamelled pieces which were imported to the Court, often as a tribute to the Emperor.  The style of painting on the bottle is also closely related to the 18^th century prints and engravings from Europe, especially in the stippling effects to produce shading and differentiation of depth and form in the landscapes.  Prints of such idealized landscapes populated with small figures began to be produced in France around 1750.  The use in Europe of puce as the monochrome colour against white in enamels on copper seems to have developed much later than on porcelain, often depicting chinoiserie scenes within raised gilt rococo frames.  These can usually be dated to after 1750. 

By the reign of the Emperor Qianlong, enamellers at the palace workshops had mastered the manufacture and painting of fine overglaze enamels. The finest quality puce enamelled landscapes were found on ceramics, glass and copper wares with Qianlong marks, and appear to have been made at the imperial ateliers during his reign.  Qianlong demanded technical perfection, and was willing to expend considerable sums to obtain both innovative and artistically superior pieces.  To produce puce enamel of high quality and consistent colour, such as this present snuff bottle, would have been very costly, and to paint a complex landscape would have challenged even the most skilled of enamellers.  Furthermore, most snuff bottles are painted with Chinese landscapes, rather than European ones, making this lot all the more special. 

The origin of puce monochrome landscape colour in Chinese artistic production is seen in an early manifestation on porcelain on a Yongzheng bowl, from the Eugene Fuller Collection in the Seattle Art Museum, illustrated in Asiatic Art in the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1973, pl. 160, where Chinese-style landscapes are finely painted within leaf-shaped panels on a mille fleurs ground. 

Closely related snuff bottles include an enamel decorated bottle with a continuous puce landscape scene illustrated in Hugh Moss, The Art of the Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 1, New York, 1993, pl. 178; and another bottle enamelled on copper with landscape panels within rococo borders reserved on a coloured ground, illustrated in Masterpieces of Snuff Bottles in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1995, pl. 25. Compare also two glass bottles decorated with puce landscapes within panels illustrated in Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1994, pls. 23 and 24. Puce landscape panels depicting Western sceneries can also be seen on a painted enamel miniature vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, pl. 136; while a small covered jar and stand, also in Taipei, combine Chinese landscape panels in puce with Western scenes in blue on a yellow flower-scroll ground, ibid., pl. 115.