清十八 / 十九世紀 青花雲蝠高士圖鼻煙壺

Robert Hall，倫敦，1990年

Robert Hall，《Chinese Snuff Bottles III》，倫敦，1990年，編號68
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1188

The front panel has a minute flake to the top and a curved glaze crackle along the border. The bottle also has some original pinholes and a firing line of approx. 0.6 cm to the neck. The reverse panel has three small spur marks. The overall condition is otherwise very good.
"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."

If all porcelain came from the same kiln at Jingdezhen, we might date this to the mid- to late nineteenth century, but the reality is not so simple: what may appear late in style compared to some wares could also be simply the product of a lesser kiln working earlier. After all, there were hundreds of private potteries at Jingdezhen. In this case, there are several factors that suggest this might be an early-nineteenth-century bottle made for the growing popular market for porcelain snuff bottles. Sale 9, lot 136, helps to confirm this identification, as does the one in the Bragge Collection pictured in Treasury 6, no. 1189, which was collected in England prior to 1876.

Unglazed interiors are found occasionally through the nineteenth century, but other than with the wares of Wang Bingrong 王炳榮, they are very much the exception to the rule, whereas in the Jiaqing period the opposite was true, suggesting that this bottle was made before the glazed interior had again become standard.

The fact that the European watch shape upon which the form of this bottle is based inspired other mid-Qing snuff bottle forms also permits a dating range centred on the Jiaqing reign, although the shape by no means fell out of use after that period. Sale 9, lot 136, adding watch faces to the watch form, confirms the inspiration for this shape.

There is also something about the style of the bats and clouds that would accord with Jiaqing popular wares in famille-rose enamels. Certainly, the neck border of formalized lingzhi-heads still retains a sense of easy legibility that it began to lose during the Daoguang period.

There is one other reason to suggest it might be from early in the century. It appears to be the only bottle that is fired on spurs on its side. There are three distinct spur-marks on one main-side panel. This would be an unlikely method of firing a bottle if it was made after Jingdezhen had been making porcelain snuff bottles for a wide public market for many years, during the course of which it would have developed a number of more efficient ways to fire bottles. It would be more likely to happen at the beginning of the evolution of ceramic bottles for non-imperial demand.

Another blue-and-white bottle, apparently from the same mould but with a different design, was offered in Taipei (Unique Art Auction), 23 October 1999, lot 801, and others are known, as well.