A FAMILLE-VERTE PORCELAIN 'WILD GEESE' SNUFF BOTTLE MARK AND PERIOD OF GUANGXU

Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., 1992.

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, British Museum, London, 1995, cat. no. 219.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.

Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 6, Hong Kong, 2007, no. 1429.

Minor nibble to the inner footrim. Small surface abrasions from use. Areas of the red paint show some slight wear, predominantly on the beaks of three of the geese and to the grasses.
"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 rounded-rectangular shape is one of several unusual ones for the reign and is accompanied here by an equally unusual composition of the popular subject of wild geese on a riverbank (see also Sale 8, lot 1012). The palette is also unusual for the period, and particularly so on a bottle made for the court, if indeed that was the intended audience. As a rule, the famille vertepalette seems to have been used during the later Qing period mainly on private products rather than on imperially-marked wares. The choice may have been dictated by the subject matter, which is well-realized in this simpler palette, and even in the limited number of colours selected from it. The design of many geese on a reed bank on porcelain snuff bottles can be traced back to imperial production in the Daoguang period, and one remains in the imperial collection in Beijing with a somewhat similar design (Li Jiufang 2002, no. 342), while another with a Daoguang reign mark was published in Moss M. Moss Ltd 1970, no. 281.

The fact that the design was an earlier imperial one may lend a modicum of weight to the idea that this may have been an imperial product despite the distinct informality of the unusual running-script reign mark. A running-script mark would never have occurred on imperial wares in earlier reigns, but rules may well have been relaxed somewhat in the dying days of the Qing dynasty.

The painting of the geese is impressive, less schematic than Sale 8, lot 1012, with the birds looking a good deal more airworthy aloft and more natural on the ground. (Natural, but not naturalistic. Neither here nor on those bottles are the webs between the toes depicted, nor is it clear why one goose here has its body submerged; geese normally dive only to escape a predator in close pursuit.) Each bird is in black enamel, with red details and a white-enamel stripe to indicate the breast and front of the neck.

On three of the birds (all on the ground), the enameller has added a layer of transparent yellow over the black, introducing a little variation. An apparently small but extremely thoughtful touch of this sort can make the difference between a careless, repetitive, decorative bottle and one that is intriguing.

Another thoughtful touch is reflected in the composition. Most of the design is concentrated on one main side, where the reed bank is as much the main subject as the geese returning to it. On the other side, however, where the two birds are in flight, there is nothing else. The artist has placed us in the airy world of flight and with his placing of the two dark birds, cruising in to land on spread wings, created a powerful, separate composition.