A TURQUOISE PORCELAIN 'PURSE' SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG / JIAQING PERIOD

Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 1997.

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. 1167.

Apart from a tiny area of surface wear to the lip, and a pinhole on the bottom, the overall condition is very 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."

The purse- or pouch-form snuff bottle was a popular one in Beijing during the Qing dynasty, occurring across a range of materials (see Sale 8, lot 1019 and lot 45 in the present auction for an idea of the variety of treatments). The pouches they imitate always had a means of suspension from the belt, often consisting of the drawstrings or cords that threaded through the mouth of the pouch, acting as a closing device, but sometimes in the form of loops. The more convenient method for snuff-bottle versions, whether or not they were ever intended to be suspended from the belt, was by way of loops at the shoulders. The loops here, however, suggest that in this case there was never any intention for the loops to function. They are so tiny and vulnerable, surrounded by so little porcelain, that they can only have been intended to be decorative, reinforcing the formal reference to the real purses. Any competent potter would also know that when dipping the porcelain form into the viscous glaze, the tiny holes would be filled and rendered useless.

The bottle, like lot 62 in this auction, has been fired upside down on a rod of some sort inserted into the bottle, as is evident from the heavy pooling of the glaze all around the neck.         

Early, turquoise-glazed snuff bottles are quite rare, but then again any early monochrome snuff bottle is relatively rare. Another bottle that appears to be almost identical is in Mathias Komor’s ‘Chinese Snuff Bottles’, China Journal of Science and Arts, 23/6, December 1935, pp. 340 – 341.