Lot 1132
Treasury 6, no. 1218 (‘Springtime Excess’)
HK$68,750

Famille rose enamels on colourless glaze on porcelain; with a slightly convex lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding convex foot rim; moulded and painted with a continuous scene set in and around an open pavilion in a walled garden with low fences, perforated rocks, a pine tree, and a plantain, in which two men and seven women, all naked except for shoes on the women’s bound feet, are responding to the call of spring, all on a gold ground; the lip and foot also gilt; the interior unglazed
Jingdezhen, 1796–1820
Height: 5.72 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.62/1.50 cm
Stopper: yellow and pink tourmaline carved as a frog sitting on a rock; silver collar chased with a formalized floral design

Provenance:
John Gilmore Ford, 1980
Belfort Collection, 1986

Published:
Kleiner 1994a, p. 33, fig. 4.2
Treasury 6, no. 1218

This bottle is inspired by imperial moulded porcelain bottles, but is not particularly associated with any known imperial example and may be a private product. Many unmarked bottles might be imperial in cases where we know of bottles from the same moulds or of the same style and quality that bear reign marks, but in the case of erotic bottles like this we do not find precise equivalents among imperial, reign-marked examples. This one, for instance, is unusually small for a Jiaqing moulded porcelain, and the gold ground, common to this group, does not seem as popular on known imperial bottles.

Imperial or not, the erotic activities, now removed to the garden of a private household or estate, are on a more imperial scale. Two men are outnumbered by seven women who do not appear to be even slightly inhibited by their open-air setting. The less said about the woman indelicately posed on the garden swing, the better (although we recommend you do not try this at home), but she does help us to identify another bottle from the Bragge Album. If the drawing there is at all accurate, the Bragge bottle comes from a different mould, but the careful repositioning of the heel of the woman and enlargement of the cloak being shed by the man are likely to reflect quaint Victorian modesty rather than a difference in the bottle that exposed itself to the artist.

Another interesting insight into the production process of these moulded porcelain bottles is afforded by a bottle from the same mould that has been made to look quite different by the enameller (Unique Art Auction, Taipei, 23 October 1999, lot 800). Apart from changing the ground colour to a pale turquoise, the enameller has transformed all the foliage that appears here into a series of peaches. Another from the same mould, and of the same colouring as the present example, was in Christie’s, London, 5 December 1994, lot 412. Others not from the same mould but of the same design were in the Ko Collection (Christie’s, London, 8 November 1976, lot 43), and Christie’s, New York, 2 June 1994, lot 436. Astonishingly, the Bragge and Ko bottles have, like the present example, attracted exuberant, atypical stoppers for moulded snuff bottles of this shape, perhaps with the shared aim of diverting attention from the activities depicted.

This is not the Sotheby’s sale catalogue. This is a product of Hugh Moss for the purposes of this website. For the catalogue details please refer to Sotheby’s website or request a copy of a printed sale catalogue from Sotheby’s.