An Inscribed Turquoise-Blue Glass ‘Chrysanthemum’ Snuff Bottle Qing Dynasty, 18th Century

Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5th May 1994, lot 1319.

Moss et al., 1996-2009, vol. 5, no. 867.

Tiny nibbles to the outer lip. Some burst air bubbles filled with dust on the surface and in the lip. A tiny nibble (or possbily an air bubble), centrally on the narrow side. Some minor surface wear.
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The poem on this bottle is by Yun Shouping 惲壽平 (1633 – 1690). It is found, signed ‘Shouping’, on the eleventh of twelve paintings of flowers in an album by Yun that was in the imperial collection in 1774 and is now in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. The poem is quoted in the catalogue of the imperial collection, Shiqu baoji石渠寶笈 (Precious satchel of the Stone Moat), which was begun in spring 1744 and completed in winter 1745. Therefore, this poem on the chrysanthemum probably came to the Qianlong emperor’s attention in the course of discussions of the quality and classification of the painting album; he took an active interest in the evaluation of the collection. He apparently made a copy of Yun’s inscription in his own hand in the spring of 1774; that copy must have been the model for the engraver of this snuff bottle in 1774 or a later year.

Yun Shouping’s poem reads

          Frosty breath is born from the tip of my brush;

          The sparkle of the flowers enwraps me by the inkstone.

          Interspersed among the golden blossoms are red and purple ones,

          Just like a valley strewn with a myriad flowers.

This design is cut with a spinning wheel, the preferred method during the Qianlong period. Although simplified owing to the constraints imposed by use of the tool, it is crisp and sharp. It was not until the end of the reign that we begin to see a revival in diamond-point engraving, which was sustained throughout the nineteenth century.