A blue-ground Yixing stoneware 'Pekingese dogs and pigeons' snuff bottle, Qing dynasty, Daoguang period | 清道光 宜興紫砂堆料加彩雙犬圖鼻煙壺

Collection of Tuyet Nguyet (1934-2020) and Stephen Markbreiter (1921-2014).

來源：

雪月（1934-2020年）及 Stephen Markbreiter（1921-2014年）伉儷收藏

Two similarly decorated bottles are illustrated in Bob C. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York and Tokyo, 1976, nos 334 and 336, together with a brightly enamelled, much later example of the same subject. The subject is one of the most popular on Yixing stoneware bottles and a popular one in the Daoguang period, where it also appears on porcelain bottles in famille rose enamels. It is recorded that the Daoguang emperor was a breeder of pigeons and that his favoured concubine was fond of small dogs. The argument has consequently been made by Hugh Moss and others that the subject matter is possibly indicative of Imperial provenance.

A similar bottle is illustrated in Rachelle R. Holden, Rivers and Mountains Far from the World, New York, 1994, p. 125-6, no. 50; and another in the Joe Grimberg collection was sold in our New York rooms, 14th September 2010, lot 32.