Bottle ID: 916

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GREEN

Date: 1750-1850

Height: 49 mm

Lacquer on textile, of flattened shield shape tapering to narrow sides above an oval foot with concave base, the shoulders sloping to a slightly flared neck, the intense dark green lacquer with a glossy and slightly iridescent sheen, the subtle texture of the fabric structure beneath clearly visible, possibly with original lacquer stopper.
Attributed to Fuzhou.

Similar Examples:

Sotheby's, New York, September 14, 2010, lot 7, The Joe Grimberg Collection.
Stevens, Bob C. The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, pp. 200-201, no. 748.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. II, pp. 521-522, no. 307.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
Sotheby's, New York, April 1, 2005, lot 415
The Collection of Avrina Pugh #128
Mrs. Grant of Chicago, formerly of Peking, China

Fuzhou lacquer bottles are very rare and prized for their subtlety and elegant forms. The present example with its elegant shape and electrifying color is one of the finest examples published. The J and J Collection houses a rare lacquer bottle of almost identical form, which Hugh Moss attributes to Yangzhou on the basis of the incised inscriptions and seals of Lu Dong, a famed lacquerer who worked there. However, most of these bottles would have been produced in Fuzhou, which had a tradition of lacquer production. The technique of using a textile base for lacquer is termed jiazhu or tuotai, and by tradition the base is assumed to be silk. In the present bottle, the weave of the fabric is clearly perceptible beneath the superb sheen. The stopper and spoon are also made of lacquer, the red lacquer of a particularly intense orange tone contrasting excellently with the green and revealing greater texture where slightly worn at the edges, and is most likely original to the bottle. Interestingly, this example was originally purchased by Avrina Pugh from “Mrs. Grant of Chicago, formerly of Peking” on March 8, 1940 for the not inconsiderable sum of US$ 40. It would be even more fascinating to know what Mrs. Grant paid for the bottle, presumably in China!

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