AN IVORY 'LADIES IN A GARDEN' SNUFF BOTTLE JAPAN, LATE 19TH / EARLY 20TH CENTURY

together with a watercolour illustration by Peter Suart

Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, c. 1963.
Collection of Cyril Green.
Sotheby's London, 28th October 1969, lot 67.
Hugh M. Moss Ltd., 1969.
Collection of Emily Byrne Curtis, 1986.
Robert Kleiner, London, 1986. 

Emily Byrne Curtis, Chinese snuff bottles from the collection of Emily Byrne Curtis, Newark Museum, Newark, 1982, cat. no. 13.
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Sydney L. Moss Ltd, London, 1987, cat. no. 216 and exhibition poster.

Hugh Moss, ed., Chinese Snuff Bottles, no. 2, London, 1965, p. 28, fig. 5.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 7, Hong Kong, 2009, no. 1689.

The overall condition is excellent.
"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 has long been considered to be Japanese, primarily for two reasons. The first was that the two-character mark was unlikely for a genuine imperial product of the period, even though two-character Qianlong marks are known on genuine imperial wares of the late reign and occur on porcelain bottles, among other objects. The second was that the neck was separate, allowing easier access for hollowing. This, it was felt, did not occur on the Chinese versions, but it was a standard feature of some very obviously Japanese bottles, including most of those of the lacquer-reserve group with black, red, yellow-ochre, or other coloured lacquer on an ivory ground. These have long been accepted as Japanese. Another, related group of heavily carved, mostly large, coloured ivory bottles made in Japan also had separate necks as a standard feature.

The separate neck here allows for one of the narrowest mouths on any ivory snuff bottle, a mere 0.4 cm, prompting the maker to skip making a cork and just widen the shaft of the upper spoon a little to act as one.

Another telling feature on this and on some other Japanese bottles is the use of the diaper ground. This usage is ultimately derived from Chinese lacquer, where water, flat ground, and sky were traditionally carved with different diaper patterns, the water with a series of highly formalized waves, the ground with a floral diaper, and the sky with what can be interpreted as a version of leiwen (thunder pattern) resembling formalized clouds. (See lot 108 in this sale for all three bring used in the lacquer panels of the red-and-green side.) As a general rule, this vocabulary of patterns was standard for carved lacquer ware but not common in other media, so it would be unexpected to find it on an ivory carving in the first place.