Bottle ID: 756

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ENAMELED IN BLUE, WITH BIRDS & FLOWERS

Date: 1840-1880

Height: 56 mm

Stoneware, of slightly bulbous ovoid form, with shoulders sloping to a cylindrical neck and with an oval footrim, decorated on one main side with a flowering prunus tree growing beside bamboo, a bird perched on one blossoming branch, the reverse with a flowering peony tree with a butterfly flying above, all surrounded with opaque blue enamel, the indented base covered with turquoise enamel.
Attributed to Yixing.

Similar Examples:

Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection,  Vol. 6, part 3, Arts of the Fire, 2008, pp. 959-960, no. 1457

Provenance:

Dr. and Mrs. Sylvan Golder Collection
Bonhams New York, March 19, 2018, lot 138
Purchased Eldred's Auction House, MA., 1998

Yixing bottles can be loosely divided into three stylistic groups; undecorated of varying forms, slip-decorated and enameled. The enamel group, into which this example fits admirably, often uses this background of somewhat thick opaque blue enamel surrounding the design. The enameler in this case has painted with finesse the traditional design of birds and flowers without it being lost against the surrounding vivid blue ground.

 

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