A LAPIS LAZULI SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Kaynes-Klitz Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 16th November 1989, lot 226.

Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 3, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 415.

Chips to the outer lip and outer footrim. Natural vertical flawlines seen on both sides. Note: stopper has been replaced, the photograph shows an ivory one, and it now has one of stained jadeite
"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."

There is a broad group of nephrite bottles incised with floral poems by the Qianlong emperor to accompany a carving of the appropriate flower. Lot 51 in the present sale is one example. They are characteristically flattened, of high shoulder form tapering towards the foot to resemble the shape of a Norman shield, and several have these panelled main sides to frame the inscription. An example of this group in lapis is illustrated by Jutheau 1980, p. 116, no. 2; it is of the brilliantly coloured type known to have been the mid-Qing imperial standard (see Sale 3, lot 36). There are also others of this shape in nephrite that do not have any decoration, and even though the shape is pleasant enough in its own right, it seems so obviously conceived to frame something that there is an inevitable sense of an empty frame about them, specially once one is familiar with the range of imperial-poem bottles.

The shape is also found in imperial enamelled porcelain bottles of the late Qianlong and the Jiaqing, sometimes with this physical definition of the frame, sometimes with the frame painted in as formalisedformalise borders. Many of these also have flower and poem subjects, and the imperial collection is well stocked with entire sets of them. (See Chang Lin-sheng 1991, p. 117, nos. 79 and 80 for twenty bottles imitating turquoise where a twin-happiness character is framed by a similar method of depressing the edges of the panel, and p. 123, no. 87; p. 125, no. 89; p. 126, no. 90; p. 128, no. 92 and p. 129, no. 93 for sets where the frame is painted). This bottle and its nephrite equivalents appear to be blanks awaiting the inscription of imperial poems. If that is not the case, then it is is an undecorated variety inspired by those where a frame of this sort actually framed something.

Formally this is a mid-Qing shape, as proven by the many porcelain equivalents, and it may well be a mid-Qing bottle, although a date into the first half of the nineteenth century is not at all unlikely, since the interior hollowing is distinctly fan shaped and rather roughly finished up into the shoulders. On the other hand, with eight possible workshops producing imperial snuff bottles after the early 1760s, it might represent a local decline in standards.

The colour here is not as vibrant and impressive as Sale 3, lot 36. This is of the type of stone with a good deal more of the paler markings, and rather large patches of dullish pyrites.