AN ENAMELLED PORCELAIN 'POCKET-WATCH' SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG / JIAQING PERIOD

Collection of H.G. Beasley.
Collection of Miss M.A. Beasley.
Sotheby’s London, 2nd July 1984, lot 5.

 

Les plus belles collections privées de Hong-Kong, Galeries Lafayette, Paris, 1990, p. 8, cat. no. 2.
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Sydney L. Moss Ltd, London, 1987, cat. no. 221.
Kleine Schätze aus China. Snuff bottles—Sammlung von Mary und George Bloch erstmals in Österreich, Creditanstalt, Vienna, 1993.

Emily Byrne Curtis, ‘Enamels East and West’, Arts of Asia, July-August 1986, p. 55.
Victor Graham, ‘Chinese Costume Accessories as Reflected in Snuff Bottles’, Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Winter 1989, p. 12, fig. 19.
Vincent Fausone, ‘Artistic Innovation: Imitation Snuff Bottles’, Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Winter 2003, p. 17, fig. 12.
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. 1173.

The bottle has considerable flaking to the black enamel on the narrow side. There is also a small chip to the enamel at the base. Apart from some typical wear to the gold enamel at the lip and shoulders, and minor glaze frits around the watch faces, the overall condition is quite good.
"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 particular copy of a European watch is unique for the snuff-bottle world. It may be surprising, given imperial interest in European watches and clocks from the Kangxi period onwards, that there are not more imperial snuff bottles of this design from the earlier eighteenth century, but as a general rule, snuff bottles copying watches were made only from the late-Qianlong period onwards, becoming particularly popular during the nineteenth century. Perhaps with the court awash with the real thing, there was little incentive to create exact copies of them on imperial snuff bottles.

It might simplify matters to separate this bottle from production destined for imperial uses, however an imperial connection cannot confidently be ruled out. A small series of watch-form bottles produced in the late Qianlong period and bearing reign marks proves an imperial interest in the design. A splendid example from the Robert and Molly Hsieh Collection is illustrated in The Blair Bequest: Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, Michael Hughs, Baltimore: International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, 2002, no. 282; compare also another example sold in our New York rooms, 23 March 2004, lot 95. If such bottles are seldom marked, it may be mainly due to their shape; the lack of a foot leaves no obvious place to put a reign mark.

The enamels are worn extensively but unevenly. The wear was incurred prior to 1925, for this bottle was bought that year in 1925 in Beijing, after which it remained in the Beasley Collection until auctioned in 1984, when it went straight into the Bloch Collection. Strangely, the thin black enamel of the watch face is barely worn, whereas the black enamel ground of the surrounds and even the porcelain beneath is quite severely flaked and abraded. There is enough left to indicate that it once covered the entire ground of the surrounds.

The unusual palette of green and turquoise blue, with black line, gives the decoration a distinctly European appearance. These colours are all derived from the traditional famille verte palette of colours, but this in itself is of little help in dating, as this palette was used sporadically into the late Qing period, by which time it would have seemed antiquated; it could have been employed then to fool the collecting public, as an honest reference to the past, or simply as an aesthetic choice.

It is possible that the present example was a response from Jingdezhen to a particular European watch. It might have been intended to be sent north to Beijing, even to the court; or it could have been a novelty object for a private audience. If it was made to amuse foreigners, the fact that it presumably remained in China until it was bought in 1925 suggests that it did not leave the country, even if it was originally intended for export.

At first glance, the numbers marking the hours appear to be vague evocations of Roman numerals in three series: I to IIII, I to IIIII, and II to IIII. However, on the side of the bottle where the time reads roughly 3:33, there is actually a set of twelve distinct numbers. Where the value 'five' is needed, notice a faint line bisecting the ‘I’. The result is a peculiar variant of the numeral ‘V’. The designer may have understood it as a composite graph that meant ‘4 + 1’, with the faint line having the value ‘four’. This is suggested by the way he handles ‘X’: he doubles the fine line (to indicate two times four) and adds two heavier lines to make a composite symbol for ‘ten’. ‘Eleven’ is thus two fine lines and three heavier lines: (2 x 4) + 3 = 11; ‘twelve’ is two fine lines and four heavier lines (2 x 4) + 4 = 12. It is perhaps more possible that he thought his version of ‘V’ was indeed how theRoman numeral for five is written; in that case, his ten is VV; his eleven is VVI, and so forth.

No matter the interpretation, the result is a perfect one-through-twelve series on this side of the bottle. On the other side, the faint lines are missing for unknown reasons. One can only speculate as to which side was painted first; perhaps the side without the necessary fine lines was painted by a ‘clock-watcher’ whose attention was not on his work.

The present example remains one of the earliest and certainly one of the finest of the known watch-face bottles.