A rare enamel on copper 'European subject' snuff bottle, Mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 銅胎畫琺瑯西洋人物圖鼻煙壺 《乾隆年製》款

Hugh M. Moss Ltd., London.

Sotheby's New York, 22nd March 2000, lot 220.

來源:

莫士撝，倫敦

紐約蘇富比2000年3月22日，編號220

Humphrey Hui, An Addicted Dedication: Chinese Snuff bottles Christopher Sin's Collection, vol. I, Hong Kong, 2013, pl. 353.

出版：

許建勳，《An Addicted Dedication: Chinese Snuff bottles Christopher Sin's Collection》，卷一，香港，2013年，圖版353 

Snuff bottles of this high quality enameling, especially those with decorative motifs including European subjects so favored by the Qianlong Emperor, were not only produced in Beijing, but also by private enamellers working at Guangzhou. A European-subject snuff bottle from the Qing Court Collection and still in Beijing, depicting ladies in a rustic landscape, is preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 168, where it is divulged that it can be dated to 1779, as it is recorded that a customs supervisor in Guangzhou, Tu Minga, presented the Qianlong Emperor with a set of such snuff bottles, all created in Guangzhou. Such commissions by high officials looking for the most desirable gifts to present to the Emperor were clearly popular at the Court.

Finely painted in vivid tones and featuring vignettes of European ladies conversing against a landscape scene, the present bottle belongs to a group of Qianlong mark and period snuff bottles sharing these characteristics, likely produced by the same hand or workshop. Several snuff bottles in this group also have a stippled pattern on the narrow sides, including a bottle sold in these rooms, 22nd March 2000, lot 220; another sold in these rooms, 24th June 2020, lot 959. Other snuff bottles of this type have a diaper pattern and puce-enameled 'landscape' cartouches on the narrow sides, including a snuff bottle sold in these rooms, 2nd December 1985, lot 146.