YIXING, 1780-1830

This elegant bottle, decorated on one side with a peaceful lakeside pavilion and on the other with an elegant grouping of flowering plants, is by the same master slip-decorator who produced the spectacular yuzhi-marked bottle also in the J & J Collection illustrated by H. Moss et al. in The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, New York, 1993, p. 422-23, no. 253, which was sold in Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J & J Collection, Part III: Christie’s New York, 29 March 2006, lot 22. The yuzhi (Made by Imperial Command) seal proves an imperial interest in the group. The J & J Collection also included two other bottles by the same hand, illustrated in ibid., pp. 424-25, nos. 254 and 255 (sold in Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J&J Collection, Part V; Christie’s New York, 17 September 2006, lot 74, and in Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J & J Collection, Part II; Christie’s New York, 30 March 2005, lot 78, respectively).

For further examples of this master craftsman’s work see H. Moss et al., A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 6, Part 3, 2008, pp. 941-45, nos. 1448 and 1449. Number 1448 is particularly noteworthy in that includes an inscription with date corresponding to 1783, which suggests that the entire group could have been in production in the late years of the Qianlong reign. Another example from the group in the Denis Low Collection is illustrated by R. Kleiner in Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, Singapore, 1999, p. 198, no. 170.