AN INSCRIBED COPPER AND SILVER 'SNUFF BOTTLE' CONTAINER QING DYNASTY, DAOGUANG PERIOD, 1834

together with a snuff dish

Collection of Albert Pyke.
Sydney L. Moss Ltd.
Collection of Elizabeth and Ladislas Kardos.
Sotheby’s New York, 1st July 1985, lot 15.

Chinese Snuff Bottles. An Exhibition from British Columbia Collectors, Canadian Society for Asian Arts, Vancouver Centennial Museum, Vancouver, 1977, slide no. 58.
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1987, cat. no. 246.
Kleine Schätze aus China. Snuff bottles—Sammlung von Mary und George Bloch erstmals in Österreich, Creditanstalt, Vienna, 1993.

Connaissance des arts, November 1971, p. 107.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 7, Hong Kong, 2009, no. 1635.

Minute dent to the outer foot rim A small smoothed dent on one of the small sides. Wear from use to both circular panels.
"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 rare little bottle-shaped box is a bit of an imposter, only posing as a snuff bottle. It is in fact a hinged container in the form of a snuff bottle, which would have been an entertaining bit of trompe l’oeil among snuff-takers in the nineteenth century. What it was made to contain is a mystery. Kleiner suggested it might have been used for cheating at exams, allowing a would-be licentiate to smuggle some useful texts into his examination cubicle. Two favourite methods of doing this were to have the lining of clothes covered with tiny copies from the Classics, or to have salient sections inscribed in miniature on a handkerchief. It would be equally possible to hide sheets of paper containing tiny copies of the classics inside this bottle, so that would not be ruled out, but there may be another purpose behind its odd construction, a purpose hinted at by the interior. Two internal depressions in the centre of each inner panel contain the remnants of solder and perhaps holding pins, suggesting that something was fixed to the inside. Whatever it was is now lost, and one is left with no idea of what it might have been. Certainly what it contains now is not what it was originally made to contain: it is a matching copper snuff dish that was not associated with it until recently, despite being a perfect fit.

The inscription in regular script refers to bamboo (‘this gentleman’) of exaggerated value, but the connection between bamboo and eyesight is unclear. Shuangxi, thirty-some km north-west of Hangzhou, is a scenic spot known for a large grove of bamboo, however, suggesting that the name Shuangxi on this bottle may be a place name, not a personal name.

倍覺雙眸朗，全窺四宇清。此君真受用，聲價重連城。

My eyes feel a lot brighter;

I can see everything in the four quarters of the world clearly.

‘This gentleman’ is really useful,

Its fame and value greater than that of fifteen cities.

The other side is inscribed in cursive – draft script with a couplet that seems to recommend the ingestion of Daoist pills to avoid old age—which was likely to ‘succeed’ if the pills contained mercury! 

是鏡不憐紅粉面，飛丹能少白頭人           

This mirror does not take pity on pink-powdered faces.

Pills of immortality can cut down on white-headed people.

The first ten days of the ninth month of the fourteenth year of Daoguang correspond to 3–12 October 1834. This leaves no doubt about precisely when it was made, and who made it. It is also known that it was made for Duhou with the involvement of Sun Xike, but unfortunately cannot further identify the participants. Sun’s name was misread Yunke 澐柯 when we were writing Treasury 7; that is a very unlikely name, but Xike is almost as unknown as a name.

A very similar bottle exists, although it has been soldered shut to function as a snuff bottle (Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 30th October 2000, lot 746). What appears to be a third example, with an inscription that is illegible in the illustration, was in Sotheby’s New York, 25th February 1982, lot 89.