Bottle ID: 00672

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CONVEX PANELS

Date: 1821-1850

Height: 53 mm

Stoneware, of flattened rounded form, the body with vertical ribbing around the whole girth excepting the cylindrical neck area which is plain, the base with a recessed oval foot.

Attributed to Yixing.

Similar Examples:

Hidden Treasures of the Dragon - Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collections of Humphrey K. F. Hui, Margaret Polak and Christopher Sin, 1992, p. 130, no. 264.
Sotheby's, New York, June 5, 1987, lot 19, Collection of Janos Szekeres, Part II.

Provenance:

Robert Hall
Sotheby's, New York, March 23, 2004, lot 277
Lawrence and Florence Bier, no. 212

The town of Yixing in the Yangze Valley of Jiangsu province was, and still is, rich in alluvial clays particularly suited to the manufacture of small objects. The material has been used for the hand-crafting of objects for over a thousand years, but it was in the late Ming period that it was adopted by the scholar class as a suitable material for teapots, which led to it being used for other small items for the scholars’ desk. Apart from the occasional imperial order, the kilns catered to the influential minority producing items to satisfy their personal aesthetic.

This example is tastefully made and elegantly plain. The undecorated surface material being semi-porous would take on a similar patination to that of wood or bamboo – a quality which would have been greatly enjoyed by its owner.

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