A CRYSTAL MASK-HANDLED SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Belfort Collection, 1986.

Très précieuses tabatières chinoises: Collection rassemblée par Maître Viviane Jutheau, L'Arcade Chaumet, Paris, 1982.

Viviane Jutheau, Guide du collectionneur de tabatières chinoises, Paris, 1980, p. 110.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 346.

Insignificant nibble to the outer lip. Otherwise 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."

The mask-and-ring handle was apparently more popular at court than elsewhere, appearing on a wide variety of bottles that can be associated with the court, where they were part of the Qing rulers’ adoption of the ancient culture of their Chinese subjects. They may also have become fashionable elsewhere in response to the sustained imperial appreciation of them, but it is likely that they were perhaps the exception on non-imperial bottles while standard on imperial ones. From the private Suzhou school of Zhiting, for instance, they are very much the exception to the rule.

It is also worth noting that linked rings appear to have been another feature of imperial jade carving during the eighteenth century. A very large number of jades carved at various workshops for the court during the Qianlong reign, for instance, are decorated with loose-ring handles, either attached to masks or to loops or other devices (see Zhongguo yuqi quanji 1993 for numerous examples). The court also seems to have developed, during the Qianlong period, the idea of linking these rings into chains. The idea of interlinked carvings existed as early as the Zhou dynasty, but to create long chains, attaching, for example, a cover to a vessel, became popular during the Qianlong period and continued through the Qing dynasty into the modern period as a demonstration of technical skill. This idea of multiple rings would have been unlikely to occur to anyone before the real, loose-linked chains evolved as a popular motif, soone may expect this bottle to have been made no earlier than the second half of the Qianlong period, which would also be the sort of time one would expect to find many clever new ideas applied to the art of the snuff bottle in order to keep the interest of a wealthy elite.

The style of the mask handles here accords with known imperial style, although, like the rings themselves, the detailing has become more elaborate than on, for instance, Sale 1, lot 53. The carving of the bright and lively dark crystal, its hollowing, and the detailing of neck and foot would all allow an imperial provenance from the second half of the eighteenth century or the first half of the nineteenth. It is worth noting that it has the same superbly recessed, completely flat foot discussed under Sale 6, lot 189, for instance, which is on the better finished examples of bottles apparently made for the official class.