AN ENAMEL ON COPPER SNUFF BOTTLE
Attributed to Guangzhou, 1780-1850
Of rounded form with shoulders sloping to a cylindrical neck with gilded mouth, decorated using famille rose enamels each main side with leafy blossoming flowers issuing from convoluted rockwork, one side with a butterfly in flight, the neck encircled with a blue enameled interlocking border, the foot with a band of inverted lingzhi heads surrounding double gourds, the base with a blue enamel four-character Qianlong nianzhi mark in regular script and possibly of the period; stopper.
2in (5.5cm) high
Footnotes:
1780-1850 銅胎畫琺琅花團錦簇鼻煙壺一件
或爲廣州作 《乾隆年製》楷書款

Provenance:
Sotheby's, London, June 7, 1990, lot 299
Blanche B. Exstein Collection
Christie's, New York, March 21, 2002, The Blanche B. Exstein Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles, lot 66
Joan and Ted Dorf Collection, no. 317

Literature:
Chinese Snuff Bottles, Taipei Gallery, New York, 1993, p.7

Exhibited:
Taipei Gallery, New York, October 1993

For a white-ground floral enamel bottle from this group in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, see Helen White, Snuff Bottles from China, London, 1992, pl. 128; and for a related yellow-ground example, ibid, pl. 129, no. 2

During the Qianlong period, enameling in Guangzhou (Canton) became more and more popular as an art form, with both Chinese and Western subjects being in vogue. Enamel artists were regularly sent from Guangzhou to the enamel workshops in the Palace; one of the results of this was the transfer of both technique and style from the imperial workshops. Additionally the manufacture of enamel on metal bottles in Guangzhou, specifically destined for the court, appears to have strengthened the influence that Beijing had on the Guangzhou enamellers.

The pale lemon yellow enamel with unobtrusive slight spotting throughout. Slight uneven firing of enamel around the copper rim as is often the case. There are also a few minor kiln bubbles and minor enamel pulls just above the copper foot ring. Nicely painted mark. There are very minute surface scratches on the narrow sides near the foot rim.