AN INSCRIBED SAPPHIRE-BLUE ENAMELLED COPPER SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Collection of Bob C. Stevens.
Sotheby's New York, 25th June 1982, lot 210.
Collection of Eric Young.
Sotheby's London, 3rd March 1987, lot 68. 

Bob C. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, no. 990. 
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. 1111.

There are typical wear and scratches to the surface, but the characters have been generally well preserved. The actual colour is slightly less tinged with red than the catalogue illustration.
"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 gold characters of the inscription are worn, but they have left their traces etched into the surface. The etching is so crisp and even that it gives the initial impression that it was first engraved and then filled with gold; however, high-powered magnification reveals that it was the gold enamel itself that etched the surface. It is a generally very precise chemical etching in which the gold enamel follows even the tiny lines left by single wayward hairs of the calligrapher's brush. In places where thicker gold has eaten tiny craters into the blue enamel, however, the effect is less felicitous.

The inscription followed by the jixiang seal reads:

儂是珠江水上生，今年水比往年清。海珠寺右魚珠左，無數人來看月明。偶書。

I was born on the waters of the Pearl River.
This year the water is clearer than last year.
The Sea Pearl Temple on the right, fish pearls on the left,
Numberless people have come to view the bright moon.
Written on the spur of the moment

This poem was composed by He Mengyao 何夢瑤 (1693 – 1783), a native of Nanhai 南海, Guangdong, just southwest of Guangzhou. A jinshi of 1730, He held office in Guangxi and the northeast but is remembered most for his voluminous writings on medicine and mathematics.

The other poem was written in 745 by Li Bo 李白. The subject is the loneliness of palace ladies who are neglected by the emperor:

天回北斗挂南樓。金屋無人螢火流。月光欲到長門殿，別作深宮一段愁。佳句。

The sky turns and the Northern Dipper hangs over a southern loft.
The golden room is empty; only fireflies flit about.
The moon's rays reach almost to Changmen Palace,
Declaring the sorrows of [those who reside] deep in the palace precincts.
Wonderful lines

This combination of poems, one by a famous Tang poet, the other by an official, doctor, and poet who lived a thousand years later than the other, is intriguing. Nothing about this bottle forces one to consider a palace-workshop origin, but there is probably no reason to seize upon the presence of a poem by He Mengyao to propose slapping a made-in-Guangdong label on it.

Judged on its own merits, regardless of its origins, it is a rare and lovely bottle. The intense, sapphire-blue ground combines with a shape that is ideally comfortable in the hand while being capacious enough to provide a fine ‘canvas’ for the poetic sentiments; the characters are still clearly legible, even where the gold has worn away and left only the etched remains of the brushstrokes.