A finely enamelled Beijing enamel snuff bottle blue-enamel mark and period of Qianlong

the small, slightly flattened spherical body tapered to an oval foot and rising to a circular mouth, finely enamelled with a continuous scene of quails flying and feeding amid rockwork and scattered pink rose and blue daisy blooms beside water, set below a star-shaped collar between ruyi bands around the rim and base, the base inscribed with a four-character mark; the gilt-bronze stopper cast with a classic scroll surrounding a central stylized floret

Collection of Mrs. Alfred Clark.
Christie's London, 18th June 2002, lot 98.

The Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1964, cat. no. 35. 

 

 

 

Quails depicted amongst flowers and rocks have been a popular motif for enamel design. See an imperial Beijing enamel winter inkstone, delicately painted with geese and a pair of quails perched on a rock in a riverside scene, sold in these rooms, 14th April 2003, lot 4. Compare also a Qianlong mark and period porcelain snuff bottle of similar shape and elaborately modelled metal stopper, painted with the quail design, illustrated in Bob Stevens, Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, pl. 297; and a glass snuff bottle similarly painted with a pair of quails and attributed to the Beijing Palace workshops illustrated in Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottle in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, London, 1995, p. 68, pl. 35, where it is noted that the quail motif has been recorded several times on glass body.   

Quail in Chinese is pronounced an which also means 'peace', and a pair of quails (xuan an) symbolize harmony and peace. Quail is usually depicted with millet which together are a symbol of courage.