Lot 129

Lot 129
Treasury 6, no.1156 (‘Imperial Formality’)
HK$131,250

A ‘famille-rose’ enamelled-porcelain ‘bats-and-flowers’ snuff bottle

Famille rose enamels on colourless glaze on porcelain; with a flat lip and slightly convex foot; painted with a continuous formalized design of four bats and various flowers, with a tighter underlying design of iron-red formalized floral scroll; the foot inscribed in seal script, Qianlong nian zhi (‘Made during the Qianlong era’); the lip painted gold; the interior glazed
Height: 6.3 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.71/1.52 cm
Imperial kilns, Jingdezhen, 1750–1780
Stopper: glass

Provenance:
Ko Collection
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd. (1999)

Published:
Treasury 6, no.1156

The writing of the seal-script mark here is remarkably well controlled, as was Sale 2, lot 94. A brief examination of the entire Tang Ying group reveals that the calligraphic quality of the marks is variable – with some that are surprisingly poor – although the bottles themselves are spectacular and beyond question. Perhaps this is the result of interference from the chief client in the form of a policy change. In 1737 (tenth month, sixteenth day), the emperor sent an example of a seal-script reign mark and instructed, ‘From now on in the firing of porcelain beakers, vases, pots, dishes, cups, bowls and plates, always inscribe base marks according to this seal script format following faithfully its style and width of the strokes.’ From that time onwards, as one might expect, seal-script marks predominate on Jingdezhen wares made for the court (although regular-script marks were also used occasionally). It is possible enamel artisans were initially less familiar with the seal-script version of the reign mark. Even after they had mastered the script itself, there remained some problems when a footrim was present, hampering free access to the writing surface. It may have taken some time before practise in writing the new marks on snuff bottles made perfect. Right at the end of the Qianlong reign, the standards for marks and other inscriptions began to fall again, but for different reasons: vastly increased production combined with major administrative problems and corruption at Jingdezhen. We may reasonably conclude that a perfectly written mark may be one indication of a mid-reign product.

The mark here is extremely well painted, but there are indications of the influence of Tang Ying. The interior is glazed, and the bottle has the characteristic tight, precise, and very detailed formalized floral scroll beneath the main floral design. It is also another very rare design, suggesting that it was not made in the standard sets of the later reign. If it was not made under the supervision of Tang Ying, perhaps it can be attributable to a time when mark writing was at its height and his influence was still strong.

At some time in the past, this bottle has been dropped and broken in two; so while the mark and enamelling may be perfect, the bottle is not, bringing us, yet again, up against the ongoing question of condition. Here the original pieces have been painstakingly stuck back together again, leaving only barely perceptible fracture lines to indicate its brush with destruction. The Blochs understood this when they acquired it, but in view of the facts that no other example of the design had previously been recorded and that the virtually undetectable repair does not interfere with the visual appeal of the work of art, they considered it better to have a damaged example than none at all. Of course, the case for settling for a damaged example is weaker if others exist that are perfect, but here we may reiterate our belief that, as long as the original work of art is not compromised by restoration and as long as its condition is understood and taken into account at the point of acquisition, damage should not automatically rule a bottle out from a major collection. We have inherited a desire for absolute perfection in porcelain from our predecessors, who collected at a time of more plentiful supply and considerably less demand than is the case today.