清道光 / 咸豐 粉彩貓戲圖鼻煙壺

Dick Hardy 收藏，1991年
Clare Lawrence，2000年
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd，2000年

Clare Lawrence，《Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Dick Hardy Collection and Othe Sources》，倫敦，1991年，編號30
Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷6，香港，2007年，編號1331

Glaze bubbles on inner lip. Good condition.
"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."

Uncompressed forms tend to encourage a continuous, or at least all-around, design, but this is just a picture of a cat and a rock placed on half the available surface of the bottle. From the other side, it looks like a monochrome white bottle. Still, the pose of the cat seems to project its energy into the white space to the right, and the posture of the rocks and grass pulls us into the white space to the left, so the bottle in life would have presented a satisfying composition.

Another example of this subject, but with a more conventional neck and different form, is in the Barron Collection and bears the name Qingxue shanfang 晴雪山房 (‘Mountain Lodge of Fair-weather Snow’). People who used this name include Ma Zhizu 馬趕祖 of the Qianlong era; Zhang Daochao 張道超 (ca. 1780 – 1850); Xu Shouyi 徐壽彝 of the Daoguang and Tongzhi eras; and Li Enjie 李恩捷. Only Li Enjie was known when Treasury 6 was published, but his dates are still not known, and it cannot be said which of these men could be associated with the Barron bottle. Li is lsited here because it gives us a chance to provide the characters for his name, and the others are listed in order to forestall the impression that Li Enjie is the only man for whom the Barron bottle could have been made.

Interestingly, there was a publishing house by the name Qingxue shanfang active between about 1810 and 1824; the Barron bottle could have been made for such an establishment, not for an individual. Two other bottles are recorded bearing this name: one is a blue-and-white bottle painted with a copse of trees (Moss, Graham, and Tsang, 1993, no. 229); the other is an unpublished identical bottle.

The palette here is a very subdued version of the famille rose palette, the pink eyes of the beast being the only variation from the traditional famille verte palette. This is also true of the Barron bottle.