Bottle ID: 191

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MOLDED AND ENAMELED WITH SEVEN SAGES, FAMILLE ROSE

Date: Circa 1825

Height: 71 mm

Porcelain, of flattened ovoid form, molded and enameled in famille rose colors on a white ground with the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove at leisure in a garden outside a pavilion, the recessed base with an enameled iron-red four character Daoguang nianzhi mark in seal script and of the period.
Imperial, attributed to the Imperial Kilns, Jingdezhen

Similar Examples:

None found.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.

Published:

Lawrence, Clare. 1993. Twenty-Five Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period.

This is a type of porcelain snuff bottle usually associated with production during the previous reign, from 1795 until 1820. However, this example whilst stylistically akin to bottles from the Jaiqing period, has a Daoguang nianzhi mark on its base. Some years ago the noted scholar and collector, Simon Kwan, researching the writers of the marks from the Qing dynasty, in conversation with the author, indicated that he had identified the hand of specific mark writers from both the Jiaqing period and the Daoguang period. One mark writer could be shown as having worked at the end of the Jiaqing period and into the first part of the Daoguang period. This allows for the dating of this bottle by its mark to be correct and to be thought of as being made early in the Daoguang period before the writer of the mark ceased working. It was not uncommon for the various tasks involved in the production of a bottle to be divided out amongst the artisans, with for example the molding of the bottle being done by one individual whilst the decoration was done by another and the mark was written by another person. The job of mark writer in the Imperial Kilns was an honorable if mundane task.

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