AN IMPERIAL ENAMELLED GLASS 'QUAILS' SNUFF BOTTLE PALACE WORKSHOPS, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

with a flat lip and flat foot, painted in famille-rose enamels with a continuous garden scene featuring three quails on a grassy ground bordered by a convoluted natural rock formation, bamboo, chrysanthemums, asters, one other flowering plant and long grass, the shoulders with a band of formalized lingzhi beneath a neck band of formalized floral scroll, the foot inscribed in pale iron-red regular script Guyue xuan (‘Ancient Moon Pavilion’); the gilt-bronze stopper cast as a formalized chrysanthemum with a ruby finial

Collection of Lilla S. Perry.
Collection of Edmund F. Dwyer.
Christie’s London, 12th October 1987, lot 95.

Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no.  21.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-1995.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, The British Museum, London, 1995, cat. no. 34.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.

Hugh Moss, 'Enamelled Glass Wares of the Ku Yüeh Hsüan Group', Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, June 1978, p. 20, fig. 26.
Dai Zhongren, Cuntian Lidi Jian: Zhongguo biyanhu de yishu, Taipei, 1998, no. A047.
Terese Tse Bartholomew, 'A Few Interesting Botanical Themes', Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Spring 2004, p. 8, fig. 16.
Hugh Moss, 'Mysteries of the Ancient Moon', Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Spring 2006, p. 29, fig. 34.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 6, Hong Kong, 2007, no. 1097.

There are two very minute nicks to the outer lip and one to the footrim, otherwise the snuff bottle is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This bottle is an early example from the single-plane Guyue xuan group, probably dating to the 1770s or 1780s, and forms a useful link between the experimental wares and the fully evolved classic Guyue xuanwares. Comparing this to the frog-and-lotus bottle of lot 206 in the present auction, we can see that only blue enamel has been added to the gradually expanding palette. The black-speckled grassy ground of many of the experimental group is continued here, but with the addition of more-precisely delineated foliage of different types. Finally, the simpler neck and shoulder bands echo those of many of the experimental group.

The subject of quails, sometimes with millet or chrysanthemums, occurs fairly frequently on bottles from the classic Guyue xuan group. Despite the more decorative nature of these later enamels, specific elements of the repeated compositions were changed for each work of art.