AN ENAMELLED PORCELAIN AND TORTOISESHELL 'SHOU CHARACTER' SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Sotheby's New York, 3rd June 1992, lot 428. 

Robert Kleiner, Boda Yang, and Clarence F. Shangraw, Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 182.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-5.

Chen Yibing, Zhonghua zhenbao xuancui [Selected Chinese treasures], Chengdu, 1994, p. 106.
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. 1668.

The snuff bottle is in overall good condition with just two tiny chips to outer lip, as well as one small and one tiny chip to the porcelain frame outside the tortoiseshell panel on one main side. There are also some areas of flaking of the blue enamel diaper pattern, as well as scratches and abrasions on the tortoiseshell panels through use.
"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, another of the unique bottles in the Bloch Collection, was obviously designed for the inset panels. The panels have not been applied over older decoration, for no such decoration is evident on the porcelain visible through the paler areas of tortoiseshell; nor is it conceivable that an original porcelain bottle would have gone forth into the world with blank panels when it was so heavily decorated around the quatrefoil frames with a typical secondary formalised pattern.

Kleiner suggested that the porcelain was eighteenth century, but it is likely that it could only be from very late in that century at the earliest. The interior is glazed, a practice that died out during the second half of the eighteenth century and was not generally revived until the Jiaqing era (all but the first four years of which were in the nineteenth century), becoming standard by the 1820s or 1830s. There are a few notable exceptions, but the odds are that this bottle's interior dates it to the early nineteenth century.

One might infer from the fact that the bottle was constructed of two moulded parts joined vertically (as may be seen from an inspection of the interior) that this piece was part of a series, for once a mould was made there was a tendency in porcelain production to utilise it more than once. However, there does not appear to be any bottles with alternative decoration that seem to come from the same mould, let alone any others inlaid with tortoiseshell. This must have been a unique experimental creation.