AN IVORY AND LACQUER SNUFF BOTTLE IMPERIAL MASTER, JAPAN, LATE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY

modelled with a tapered body rising to a broad shoulder and surmounted by a short flared neck, each side with a panel enclosing a 'figures in landscape' scene carved through layers of lacquer, interrupted by densely carved mythical scenes carved through the ivory on the sides, the base with an apocryphal four-character Qianlong seal mark

Sotheby's New York, 1st July 1985, lot 192.
Mary and George Bloch collection.

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. 1686.

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."

An interesting feature here is the thin layer of red sandwiched between the thicker brown layers. In Chinese lacquer making, including such a layer was a traditional method of giving the artist a guide in arriving at an even depth of carving. Chinese lacquer from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries had long been highly valued and much copied in Japan, so this guide-layer was well known to Japanese craftsmen long before they began to produce snuff bottles for an export market in the late nineteenth century. Here, the carver has continued well beneath the guide line, leaving the red layer floating far above the ground plane. In some places, the varying depths of carving have left this thin red layer exposed as a contrasting extra layer of colour, as in the group of five conifer-like trees behind the towering cliffs and on the receding floor of the pavilion. Oddly, no similar guide-layer is provided on the opposite side.

Typical of Japanese versions of Chinese snuff bottles, there are a number of artistic anomalies here. The present example is on the large side for an imperial snuff bottle of the Qianlong period, and there are the usual misunderstandings of subject matter. The figure, previously wrongly identified as the Japanese deity Benten, is intended to be the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin, riding on a dragon. This image is very rarely found in Chinese art, and when she was associated with a dragon, it would not be a five-clawed imperial beast.

The fenghuang on the other narrow side is stylistically more Japanese than Chinese, as is particularly noticeable in the unusually long tail-feathers. The wide-eyed, bearded beasts on the side panels are also atypical, as are their beaming smiles. The beast in Chinese art is usually a fearsome, voracious, inhibiting monster, and unlikely to be so blatantly depicted grinning.

The naturalistic peony stopper is also typically Japanese. When floral stoppers occur on imperial Chinese snuff bottles, they are radically formalised and never specifically a peony, since it is difficult to tell a formalised peony from dozens of other flowers, whereas formalised chrysanthemums and lotus flowers remained recognisable and symbolically significant.

The standard method for testing the hollowing of a snuff bottle, by running the spoon around the inside of the bottle, is misleading in the case of many Japanese bottles. That test here suggests that it is barely hollowed at all, but that is a false result that comes from what may have been a sense of technical pride on the part of the artist. The inner neck is both long and narrow, restricting the movement of the spoon. A bent paper clip or other piece of wire will reveal the true state of the hollowing, which is extensive.

For two examples with circular panels in an ivory body in the Mullin Collection, see Moss and Sargent, This Snuff-Bottle Monkey Business: The Mullin Collection and Its Story, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 223 - 226 and 377, cat. nos. 242 and 243.