China, 1736-1795. The compressed globular body rising from a waisted foot with slightly concave base surrounded by a protruding flat foot rim to a short cylindrical neck. Superbly painted in bright enamels to one side with a bird perched on a thin branch and looking toward a butterfly, above blossoming lotus and peony, and to the other with two birds perched on a gnarled branch amid peony, prunus, bamboo, and a butterfly. The panels are surrounded by a finely incised gilt copper relief design, the immediate frame foliate and further decorations in the form of fruiting leafy branches. The neck with raised gilt-copper ruyi-heads enclosing scrolling vines below a key-fret border painted in iron-red against a white ground, the scrolling vines repeated on the foot below similar raised gilt-copper strips. The base with a blue-enameled four-character mark Qianlong nianzhi and of the period. Note the unusually massive gilding to exposed copper.

Provenance: English private collection. Lyon & Turnbull, London, 14 May 2021, lot 145, sold for GBP 12,500 or approx. EUR 18,500 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). A copy of the original invoice from Lyon & Turnbull, dating the present bottle to the 18th century, accompanies this lot.
Condition: Superb and absolutely original condition with no restorations or repairs of any kind (inspected under strong blue light). Some old wear and shallow surface scratches as well as microscopic hairlines and other manufacturing flaws, such as minor pitting. The base with a minor tint of copper oxidation. Please contact the department for high resolution and daylight images, as these will further confirm the excellent overall condition.

Stopper: Carved pink translucent Beijing glass
Weight: 29.3 g
Dimensions: Height incl. stopper 55 mm, Diameter neck 12 mm and mouth 4 mm

This snuff bottle is one of the true masterpieces of Palace enameling. Of slender, elegant form ideally matched with a powerfully disposed subject, coupled with complete technical control of the medium. The traditional Chinese figural subject is painted entirely in Western manner, which makes it even rarer than its European subject counterparts.

By the reign of the Emperor Qianlong, between 1736 and the 1750s, the Palace enameling workshops had reached their peak in mastering the manufacture and painting of overglaze enamels. A combination of intense Imperial interest, the fruits of the Kangxi and Yongzheng Emperors' contributions to enameling in the various media, and proliferation of both Court artists and Jesuit missionaries involved in designing and painting the wares, resulted in a short zenith for the art. The present example, dating from the early Qianlong period, epitomizes this pinnacle in the Chinese production of enamels on copper.

Expert's note: The incredible quality of the painting seen in the present bottle is practically unheard of both in its fineness and detail, even by the illustrious standards of the Imperial Palace workshops. Thus, looking at the painting through a 10x magnification (and upwards) does not in any way diminish the breathtaking visual appearance.

Literature comparison: Compare a closely related Imperial enamel snuff bottle - in restored condition, with similar gilt-metal decorations and framing of the panels, but with European subjects and a brownish-black enameled four-character Qianlong mark and of the period, at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26 May 2013, lot 258.