清乾隆 / 嘉慶 銅胎剔彩「壽桃」鼻煙壺

Robert Somerville 收藏，1952年8月
Avrina Pugh 收藏
紐約蘇富比2005年4月1日，編號429
Robert Kleiner，倫敦，2005年

Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷7，香港，2009年，編號1544

Tip of peach shaved flat to provide foot
"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."

Although of a very rare design for the group, this is probably related to the cinnabar lacquer bottles of Sale 1, lot 110; Sale 2, lots 44 and 104; Sale 3, lots 28 and 135; and Sale 4, lot 46, which can be reasonably associated with the court and the eighteenth century. The only other one of this design is in the Baur Collection, in Geneva (Nicollier-de Weck 2007, no. H161, p. 337). From it one can be sure that the tip of the peach has been flattened a little here to allow the bottle to stand upright—no doubt at a time when collectors preferred to show their bottles standing in cabinets. Both of the peaches are the same colour, and the two colours used are similar to those found on the broader group, as is the confident, crisply carved detail. This is also on a metal ground, since the flattened base seems to be of bronze or brass, and the interior appears to be metal. It may be that the basic forms of these bottles were made in the more easily worked copper, where sheets could be beaten into shape, while the details of inner neck, lip, and foot may have been in bronze.

Avrina Pugh (1892–1986), whose biography as a collector is related in the Sotheby’s catalogue of her sale (Sotheby’s New York, 1st April 2005), kept excellent records of all her purchases, giving us some useful documentation as to earlier provenance and some entertaining information on prices. This one cost her $35 in 1952, about the price of a top-of-the-line Pickering cartridge for one’s phonograph in those days. Depending on how one computes the relative values, the purchase price would be equivalent to anywhere between $275 and $700 in 2009 dollars, but no matter how one figures it, $35 still seems to be a price that anyone entering the snuff bottle market today would envy—one of the great advantages of collecting in the 1950s.