Bottle ID: 00253

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YANGZHOU, WHITE DOUBLE GOURD, INSECTS & PLANTS

Date: 1770-1850

Height: 65 mm

Glass, of flattened double gourd form with a slightly concave foot, decorated in famille rose enamels on a milk-white ground with a continous scene of a dragonfly and two insects flying among flowering plants and grasses; the base with an iron-red three character Guyue Xuan mark.

Attributed to Yangzhou.

Similar Examples:

Holden, Rachelle R.  Rivers and Mountains Far From the World - The Rachelle R. Holden Collection, 1994, pp. 98-99, no. 36.
Sotheby's, New York, March 22, 2000, lot 168, A Mid-West Collection.
Christie, Manson & Woods, St. James's, London, June 10, 1974, lot 59, The Ko Family Collection, Part IV.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Sotheby's, London, December 6, 1994, lot 8

 

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Published:

JICSBS, Winter 2008, p. 10, figs. 11a and 11b

Peter Y. K. Lam in his article "Studio Marks in Imperial and Court Related Snuff Bottles" published in Hui, Humphrey and Peter Lam, The Imperial Connection, 1998, states that at some point in the Daoguang reign, Guyue Xuan marked copies of Imperially produced enameled bottles began to be made outside of the Yuanming Yuan; some of them of very high quality.  This seems logical given that the death of the Qianlong Emperor in 1799 would imply that there was no reason to make anything further for the Guyue Xuan after that time.  During the Daoguang period, the cultured atmosphere of the Court was paling into insignificance compared to Daoguang's financial and political woes outside the Palace.  The Emperor bartered away Imperial favors such as the right to use yellow, the Imperial color, and it seems likely that an Imperial mark such as Guyue Xuan would have then been eagerly taken up by enamelers outside the Court, in both Beijing and Yangzhou.  The existence of enamel on glass bottles decorated with the ubiquitous cricket, that bear direct comparison to the Daoguang marked porcelain examples, suggests a later dating period for some of these bottles whether they are Court-related or not.

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