清十九世紀 宜興紫砂胎霽藍地粉彩開光「仙山樓閣」圖鼻煙壺

Robert Hall，倫敦，1984年

Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷6，香港，2007年，編號1459

Tiny surface scratches and some wear to the edges around the oval panels.
"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."

Both the shape of this bottle and the blue glaze surrounding the panels are standard for the group of possibly imperial Daoguang bottles represented by Sale 3, lot 110. But there are also clues suggesting that this bottle may come from later in the artist’s career than, say, Sale 5, lot 40, suggesting that perhaps he worked between the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns, and that this example, with its typically Daoguang shape and blue frame, comes from the later period.

The enamelled wares of Yixing make no attempt at high art; that is left to the literati carvers designing, engraving, and inscribing their teapots and other scholarly wares. It is likely that no scholar ever became involved in painting with enamels at the kilns; certainly, any identification of the enameller, as opposed to the potter, is extremely rare. The enamellers were devoted to producing more standard decorative wares for the elegant enjoyment of anyone from prince to shopkeeper. They may have painted the scenery and pastimes of the literati, but did not aspire to their lofty, painterly aesthetic. If one wants to trace and attempt to date these enamelled wares, therefore, one must concentrate on the visual clichés that tend to arise out of decorative repetition. For example, the pine trees on lot 1029 in this sale and Sale 5, lot 40 have realistic and energized clusters of pine-needles, whereas here they have become more of a patternbook rendition. Lot 1029 seems to be the finer painting, followed by Sale 5, lot 40, while this one shows signs of more constant repetition. There is what may be a further stage in this stylistic progression in the Hui Collection (Hui and Sin 1994, no. 46), and it is dated to what can only be interpreted as 1849. The date is likely to be accurate even though the signature, pretending to be that of a famous early-Qing potter, [Chen] Mingyuan [陳]名遠, is not. The characters for the cyclical date are impressed in the clay with small, presumably wooden stamps; these must have been on hand at the pottery for use on any vessels in the year’s production that were to be dated. A full-fledged forgery attempt would have included a reign title appropriate for Chen Mingyuan. Accepting the Hui bottle as having been made in 1849, and taking into account the evidence of certain excavated Qianlong wares, we thus have a consistent school of enamelling at Yixing stretching from the late Qianlong through to the end of the Daoguang reign, and probably a little beyond. If this represents later work, then it must presumably date from the Daoguang period.