Bottle ID: 190

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RED UNDERGLAZE, PAIR, FISHERMEN AND MOUNTAINS

Date: 1821-1850

Height: 87 mm

Porcelain, a pair of bottles of tapering cylindrical shape, both decorated with a transparent glaze on copper oxide with continuous scenes of a fisherman on a riverbank, in a mountainous landscape, fishing at night under the moon, a seal reading baiya zhi (made by Baiya) to one side, the bases with blue four character Daoguang nianzhi marks in regular script and of the period.

Imperial, Jingde zhen Imperial kilns

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.95, no. 66.
Christie's, New York, March 19, 2008, lot 204, The Meriem Collection.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS New York, October 1993

Published:

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

Whilst it is unlikely that porcelain bottles such as these would have been made as a pair, it is fascinating to see them together. With essentially the same painterly decoration on each surface and more importantly with the same underglaze blue basemark, they support each other and allow for a comparison with other similar bottles in terms of dating. Porcelain snuff bottles were made in large quantities but very few were produced with correct basemarks. Those that are dated to a particular reign are invariably of a higher quality than their unmarked counterparts. In the case of these bottles, whilst the scene is fairly typical, the use of underglaze red to such effect is unusual, as is the confining of underglaze blue to the base. Baiya is an unrecorded name and as such one cannot say whether the bottles or the decoration was produced by this artist.

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