Bottle ID: 00630

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ENAMELED FAMILLE ROSE, SEVEN CHILDREN IN LANDSCAPE

Date: 1780-1795

Height: 58 mm

Porcelain, hard paste, of flattened shield shape with straightened sides, with an everted gilded mouth, decorated in underglaze cobalt-blue, famille rose and iron-red enamels and gilded, with on one indented panel four children in a garden with natural rocks and flowering shrubs, one child holding up a lotus flower, another holding a bow and having fired an arrow into osmanthus flowers; the reverse side with three children in a garden with an osmanthus tree, behind a low fence, in which sits one of the boys holding out a flower; the panels surrounded by formalized floral design; the foot with an underglaze blue Da Qing Qianlong nianzhi mark in seal script and of the period.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Jingde Zhen.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 504.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. I, p. 363, no. 210.
Sotheby's, London, June 21, 1995, lots 128, 129 and 130, The Stone Picking Studio.
Hughes, Michael C. The Blair Bequest - Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, 2002, p. 169, no. 210.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

This porcelain bottle dates from the last quarter of the Qianlong reign and is of a popular Imperial type, developed at that time and continuing into the first part of the Jiaqing reign. This group combined famille rose enamels with underglaze blue borders and surrounds and, in some cases, an underglaze blue reign mark. However the shape of this bottle differs somewhat from the more usual flattened type and specifically the subject matter is not otherwise recorded on any porcelain bottle of this period, making this example highly unique. The subject symbolically represents young boys passing the Imperial Examination, thus ensuring their futures as officials and acquiring the respect and wealth that went with this position. The gui flower is a symbol of success in the Imperial Examinations.

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