A COPPER-RED AND UNDERGLAZE-BLUE PORCELAIN 'DRAGON AND CLOUDS' SNUFF BOTTLE LATE QING DYNASTY

Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., 1985.

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1987, cat. no. 235.
Kleine Schätze aus China. Snuff bottles—Sammlung von Mary und George Bloch erstmals in Österreich, Creditanstalt, Vienna, 1993.

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. 1396.

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."

Although this bottle is of the standard cylindrical form that had been current throughout the nineteenth century, the rather substantial foot, the lack of any neck borders, and the quality of the underglaze colours all suggest a late-nineteenth-century date for this bottle.

The volatile underglaze red works unusually well here. By splashing the copper pigment about and letting it bleed freely into the glaze without any apparent attempt at restraint, the artist has created fairly spectacular clouds burgeoning from the brushstrokes of their application. These are balanced by the body, claws, and face of the sinuous dragon revealing themselves among the red in very precise blue or slightly grey-blue lines, making a compelling scene.

The porcelain ground is of the slightly grey cast associated with underglaze red in the mid- to late nineteenth century, but since there has been no attempt to control the red here, this tint may have arisen naturally out of the use of copper red pigment, rather than any attempt to modify the glaze or porcelain in order to better control the underglaze copper.

The late Qing government was in disarray, corruption was rife, and honours—presumably including the use of significant dragons—were apparently bartered freely. Imperial prerogatives meant less than they once did. It is possible that the imperial kilns, rebuilt, according to some sources, around 1866, produced underglaze decorated bottles, or, if they were not rebuilt, as others claim, such bottles may have been ordered for the court from private kilns well practised in their production. It is equally possible that with a keen foreign collector’s market beginning to understand the meaning of the five-clawed dragon and other simple symbols and to prize the objects they decorated, private production would have produced such a bottle without a second thought about the crumbling imperial protocols of a doomed dynasty.