清乾隆 / 嘉慶 粉彩金地瓜瓞綿綿葫蘆鼻煙壺 連水彩紙本畫

together with a watercolour illustration by Peter Suart

巴黎 Millon Jutheau 拍賣，Hôtel Drouot，1987年4月1/2日，編號252

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1172

There are areas of wear to the gold paint. There are also three chips in the pink enamel petals, two in the flowers at the base and one in the flower towards the top on the left side. The snuff bottle is otherwise in overall 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."

This bottle follows the style of a series of double-gourd shaped snuff bottles made for the court earlier in the Qianlong reign (see, for instance, Sale 2, lots 94 and 121, and Sale 7, lot 3), even to the rather obvious dappling of the smaller gourd with brown splashes.

It also has a gold ground. Yellow and gold grounds are often found on enamelled glass snuff bottles of this form produced at court during the Qianlong period, and the obvious intention here was to emulate enamelled metal (since the lip is also painted gold, and the lip of an enamelled glass bottle would be the same colour as the glass). This is confirmed by the otherwise totally unnecessary wash of turquoise glaze confined to the inner neck. The only possible reason for choosing turquoise for that one area was to give the impression that the entire inside was covered with turquoise enamel, exactly as was the interior of the vast majority of enamelled metal bottles from the Qianlong palace workshops.

The design here is more decorative than on the earlier examples, which is typical of a good deal of later-Qianlong enamelling, whether on porcelain, metal or glass. The gourds all hang in the same direction, all are equally splattered with brown staining, and most of the flower-heads are full-frontal repetitions of each other. This is typical of the more decorative designs of the late Qianlong period at the court, and their influence may have influenced Jingdezhen style in this particular case.

The interior join marks suggest that it was made in a two-part mould, the standard for porcelain bottles, and one may expect other examples to have come from the same mould, but at present it remains an extremely rare variation, although a related bottle of the same shape and design but with different colouring was sold in our New York rooms, 24 April 1975, lot 52.