A FAMILLE ROSE ENAMELED PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE
Imperial, attributed to the Palace Kilns, Jingdezhen, 1799-1820
Of rectangular form with rounded shoulders sloping to a cylindrical neck with everted gilded mouth, decorated using famille rose enamels on both sides with scenes from the Dream of the Red Chamber, one side with a female attendant offering a flower to a lady holding a vase, standing under a pine tree in a fenced garden, the reverse with a young male attendant offering the same flower to a man seated under a pine tree, a pile of books beside him, the neck, shoulders and narrow sides decorated with blossoming flowers, the oval footrim with an inset iron-red four-character Jiaqing nianzhi mark in regular script and of the period; stopper.
2 5/8in ( 6.7cm) high
Footnotes:
1799-1820 瓷胎粉彩開光人物鼻煙壺一件
御製 或爲景德鎮御窯製
《嘉慶年製》楷書款

Provenance:
Raymond Li, October 1990
Joan and Ted Dorf Collection, no. 144

Literature:
Raymond Li, The Medicine Snuff Bottle Connection, p. 45, no. 143
JICSBS, Winter 2018, p. 37, fig. 3

Exhibited:
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD., September 30–December 9, 2018

A great variety of innovative shapes were produced at the Imperial Kilns in Jingdezhen towards the end of Qianlong's reign and continued into the Jiaqing period. This is one of the less ornate shapes which still retains its elegance. Often these bottles would have had a landscape, floral or garden scene on one or both sides, sometimes with a scene on one side and a calligraphic inscription or imperial poem on the reverse. Most of the poems that appear on Qianlong mark and period bottles were composed by the Qianlong emperor himself. He was a prolific poet who was said to have composed over 36,000 poems in his lifetime! After his death in 1799 the practice of putting his poems on porcelain bottles was discontinued. This suggests that a bottle such as this where a garden scene is shown on both sides was produced in the imperial kilns after 1799. An upright rectangular shape such as this allows for the most successful execution of a garden scene. Not only were snuff bottles the height of fashion at the imperial court, they were also part of a prevalent system of gift giving. The Qing Court used two distinct terms relating to this subject –gong meaning tribute, which referred to items presented by foreign visitors, or domestically from outside the Palace, and shang meaning bestowment as a sign of imperial favor, referring to items given to others from the Palace. The first references to gift giving occur in the 17th century.

Very good condition with fine figure painting; some minor gilt losses.