Bottle ID: 302

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BLUE AND RED UNDERGLAZE WITH DRAGON

Date: 1800-1880

Height: 73 mm

Porcelain with a transparent glaze on cobalt and copper, of cylindrical form, the shoulders sloping towards a slightly everted lip and tapering to a narrower circular foot; decorated continuously in underglaze cobalt-blue and copper-red with a writhing dragon coiling around the bottle against a dense background of leaves and chrysanthemum flowerheads; the neck with a lingzhi fungus band, the base with a four character mark in regular script, Yongzheng nianzhi. Attributed to Jingde zhen.

Similar Examples:

Kleiner, Robert. In Search of a Dragon: Underglaze-Blue and White Porcelain Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Joseph Baruch Silver, 2007, p. 40, no. 20.
Sotheby's, New York, March 17, 1997, lot 446.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd
Clare Lawrence Private Collection
Alexander Brody

The rising popularity of snuff bottles outside the Palace in the nineteenth century resulted in a flood of snuff bottles of many varied materials. That so many were produced in underglaze cobalt blue and copper red porcelain is no surprise. This type of porcelain had a long history, being taken from Persian blue and white porcelain of the thirteenth century. However it was the Chinese who were able to eventually produce porcelain that was superior in all respects to the Persians. Six centuries later in these small miniature bottles the influences remain and can be seen in the trailing flower-heads and the coiling dragon.

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