Lot 38
Treasury 6, no. 1080 (‘Within the Basket’)       
HK$1,840,000

Famille rose enamels on copper, with gold; with a flat lip, slightly concave foot, and slightly protruding flat foot rim; painted with a continuous design of various flowers seen through an openwork basket, with two circular panels on the narrow sides with chi-dragon medallions, the foot inscribed in blue regular script Qianlong nian zhi 乾隆年製 (‘Made in the Qianlong era’); the interior covered with turquoise-blue enamel, the exposed metal gilt
Imperial, palace workshops, Beijing 1736 – 1779
Height: 4.53 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.70/1.19 cm
Stopper: gilt bronze, chased with a formalized shou (longevity) character, made from half a garment button; with a separate gilt-bronze collar

Provenance:
Hugh M. Moss Ltd (prior to 1978)
Blair Lorillard Hills
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd (1985)

Published:
Snuff Bottles of the Ch’ing Dynasty 1978, no. 12
JICSBS, December 1980, p. 25, fig. 44
JICSBS, Autumn 1988, p. 11, fig. 17
Kleiner 1987, no. 4
Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, no. 8
Kleiner 1995, no. 12
Treasury 6, no. 1080

Exhibited:
Hong Kong Museum of Art, October – December 1978
Sydney L. Moss Ltd, London, October 1987
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May – June 1993
Hong Kong Museum of Art, March – June 1994
National Museum of Singapore, November 1994 – February 1995
British Museum, London, June – October 1995
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July – November 1997

For a discussion of the basket-of-flowers design, see Sale 1, lot 67. The precise dating of this bottle within the earlier-Qianlong output is somewhat uncertain. The design precludes the use of the elaborate borders that are useful in dating palace enamels, and flowers are so common a subject for palace enamels throughout the eighteenth century that to use them independently to establish an exact date is difficult. The quality of the artistry suggests the early Qianlong era, as do the scale and minute detailing of the subject.

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.