A PAIR OF BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN MEIPING-FORM SNUFF BOTTLES QING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURY

Robert Kleiner, London, 1990.

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. 175.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-5.

A Catalogue of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Robert Kleiner & Co., Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 118.
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, nos. 1277 and 1278.

The overall condition of the pair is very good, except for some minor surface scratches and tiny abrasions from use to both bottles.
"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 unglazed interiors here suggest a possible date from the Jiaqing period, but this single feature cannot be used in isolation as a definitive dating guide in the mid-Qing period.

This entertaining pair of bottles was not made as a pair, of course; they are simply two similar vessels made as part of the commercial mass production of a popular design that would never go out of fashion. Everyone in China was well aware of the animal that designated the year of his or her birth, creating an endless demand for subjects related either to a specific animal or to the group as a whole. At least one other similar bottle is known (Hugh Moss records), suggesting a more numerous series.

If these two had been truly a pair, one might expect to find six of the animals on each. The twelve animals of the cycle are associated with the Twelve Earthy Branches (zi, chou, yin, mao, chen, si, wu, wei, shen, you, xu,and hai) and are, respectively, the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog, and pig. The Branches were used in sequence to designate the twelve two-hour periods into which the Chinese day was divided (see Sale 9, lot 136 for a watch face marked off with the twelve) and, in combination with the Ten Heavenly Stems, to designate the years of the sixty-year cycle of the Chinese dating system. 

Given that these are both miniaturised vases, there is a possibility that they were not originally made to contain snuff. John Ault noted a variety of medicines that might be kept in small bottles and illustrated several medicine bottles. He also raises the intriguing possibility of other powdered substances that were ingested via the nostrils, in particular Strobilanthes niveus, a medicinal plant snuffed to this day in Southeast Asia (Ault 1989). These miniature meiping might also have been part of a long-standing series of miniature vases for decoration. There was a tradition of such miniatures made in vast quantities to be shipped to Europe as decorative ornaments that continued into the nineteenth century.

The ultimate answer to all such questions as to the original intention of the maker is that the moment any small container was stoppered and used as a snuff bottle it became one. This would be true of the conversion of miniature vessels made prior to the introduction of snuff (although such adaptation was rare and most attributions to the conversion of early ‘medicine’ bottles arises mainly out of optimism on behalf of dealers and collectors). The same is equally true, of course, of retrofitting, where an existing small jade carving, for instance, is hollowed out and made into a snuff bottle.

Conversion may explain the unglazed interiors of these two bottles. Although glazed interiors were motivated by a perceived need to keep snuff in peak condition, there would be no pressing necessity to glaze the inside of medicine bottles or miniature vases with necks so narrow the interior could not be seen. Whatever these two meiping were made as, in the Bloch Collection they have become snuff bottles.