清十八世紀 寶石紅料刻菊紋鼻煙壺

Wang Guangrui，北京，1999年
Hugh M. Moss Ltd，2000年

Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷5，香港，2002年，編號865

Surface scratches to the foot. The engraving on both rasied circular panels is worn from use. A few tiny air bubbles burst to the surface, one more noticeable in the centre of one engraved flower head.
"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."

Without the engraving, this would represent a typical imperial faceted ruby-glass bottle datable to the first half of the eighteenth century. The shape is probably derived partly from seventeenth-century Bavarian style, which lingers on in the faceted narrow-sides of Bavarian snuff bottles well into the nineteenth century (see Schaefer 1985, nos. 48, 146, and 151 for examples).

Sale 8, lot 1006 appears to have been cut with a spinning wheel, the traditional Chinese method used also in Bavaria in the late seventeenth century. This design seems to have been achieved by diamond-point engraving, introduced to the palace workshops by the missionaries along with their European glass technology in 1696, or shortly thereafter. With a spinning wheel, the fluency of line is somewhat curtailed, whereas any shape can be fluently drawn with a diamond point, as with a brush. To gain breadth of line, however, it is necessary to make multiple incisions, or scratches, can be seen here. The individual-looking lines, such as the stems of flowers, are composed of a mass of tiny, connected, overlapping, scratches.

Both methods of engraving—and combinations of them—were used throughout the snuff-bottle period, but these particularly popular and distinctive diamond-point designs were used from the early part of the eighteenth century onwards.

The best guess regarding the date of this example would be the Yongzheng period or, possibly, the late Kangxi. The subject is typically Chinese, but the style of depiction is not. Here, it is uncertain whether this was because the artist was coming to terms with, and still influenced by, newly-introduced European methods of decoration, or because it was crafted by a European hand. Confirming the likelihood of a palace provenance is another identically shaped bottle, but with undecorated raised panels, in imperial yellow (Christie’s London, 4th October 1999, lot 163).