Lot 132

Lot 132
Treasury 6, no.1199 (‘A Brace of Buddhist Lions’)
HK$25,000

A crackled-glaze porcelain ‘lion’ snuff bottle

Black enamel on crackled, colourless glaze on beige porcelain; one of two bottles in the Bloch Collection, each in the form of a reclining Buddhist lion clutching in its mouth and between its front paws a brocade ball, the ribbon from which extends beneath the naturalistic underside of the bottle, the pupils of the eyes painted black; the interiors unglazed
Probably Imperial, Jingdezhen, 1796–1820
Length: 7.52 cm
Mouths: 0.71 cm
Stoppers: malachite with a jadeite finial and vinyl collar

Provenance:
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd. (1991)

Published:
Jutheau 1980,p. 91
Treasury 6, no. 1199

Other versions are known with overall enamelling. They all appear to date from the Jiaqing period and exist in sufficiently large numbers to demonstrate a popular and, probably, Imperial model.

Like the upright model, this reclining version of the lion is also found in a coloured version, sometimes in the same blue colour seen on the upright ones. For examples representing the full range of possibilities, see the commentary to this and no. 1198 in Treasury 6.

This and no. 1198 seem identical to each other, but they may still be from different moulds. Exterior details are uncannily similar, but measurements between certain points differ by a critical millimetre or two, which they shouldn’t if they are from the same mould. Also, one is fatter in the rear haunches than the other, although it is conceivable that such a variation might be due to the hand fitting of the two halves. If they are from different moulds, it indicates how careful the mould makers were to maintain the precise details of a popular model in making a new set of moulds.