清十八 / 十九世紀 珊瑚雕瑞蝠葫蘆鼻煙壺

David Borowitz 伉儷收藏
紐約佳士得1982年2月22日，編號291
Gerd Lester 收藏，1986年

《國際中國鼻煙壺協會學術期刊》，1981年12月，封底內頁
Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷3，香港，1998年，編號433

Good condition.
"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."

Imperial attributions with the impressive group of coral bottles in the Bloch Collection has been done sparingly, despite a nagging belief that there is a good chance that many of them were probably made at or for the court. Coral was a standard gift to the emperor on the occasion of his birthday, and this event attracted enormous quantities of gifts from officials all over the empire. So many, in fact, that the court tried to limit the number of gifts, apparently without much success if the Guangdong provincial records of tribute are anything to go by, where the quantity of gifts increases steadily throughout the eighteenth century (see Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court 1987).

Here are additional formal reasons for a tentative attribution since fruit-form bottles were a known imperial standard in other hardstones and the double-gourd form figures prominently across the whole range of imperial arts.

The bat on this bottle seems related to the one on the lovely pear-shaped coral of Sale 1, lot 58. Although this bat is less formally composed, the detailing is identical, with thin incisions bordering the leading wing-tips and defining the folds in the wings, a simplified cross-hatching for the backbone, and the same manner of carving ears and eyes. Once alerted to this, other similarities in style become apparent, as does the coincidence of similarly superbly controlled carving, well separated from the ground plane and wholly convincing. This in turn links this bottle to others, such as Sale 6, lot 210 and Sale 7, lot 98, introducing naturalistic forms to the group and potentially enlarging it considerably. This being the case, what one is looking at is a significant proportion of early coral bottles being made by the same workshop, or by various workshops controlled by a single source of artistic design.

The colour of this bottle is from the more brilliant, deeper end of the normal range of colours, and the bottle one of the finest of all naturalistically shaped coral snuff bottles. The stopper is of emerald-green jadeite, which is an ideal contrast for coral and continues the design. It also fits it perfectly, and its size and exuberance are not out of keeping with mid-Qing taste in stoppers. By the late-Qianlong period jadeite had been accepted as an equal to the long-valued nephrite and became one of the most sought-after of stones, so it is not unlikely that a mid-Qing bottle, perhaps from the late Qianlong period or the decades that immediately followed that reign, would combine jadeite and coral in this manner.