23 - A BLUE AND WHITE RETICULATED PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE JINGDEZHEN, 1820-1865

A BLUE AND WHITE RETICULATED PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE JINGDEZHEN, 1820-1865 To Be Sold Without Reserve Of compressed spherical form tapering to a narrow cylindrical neck set on a broadly splayed reticulated oval foot, the narrow sides with protruding handles based upon taotie but corrupted to resemble insects, standing free of the body to allow for a suspension cord, painted in underglaze-blue on one side with a figure sailing a small boat past a cliff growing with trees and on the other with an egret in a lotus pond, suspension cord with a reticulated, yellow-glazed porcelain bead surmounted by a separate blue-enamelled silver cover Height: 68cm Provenance: Bertrand de Lavergne, Paris, June 2007 Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 22nd October 2007, (a copy of the original invoice available) For a discussion on this intriguing form of snuff bottles, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 6. Arts of the Fire, where their origins in late-Qianlong palace agate bottles are discussed. The form was popular in porcelain during the Daoguang period and afterwards. Other blue and white examples are known, but none with this style of decoration, which suggests a school of enamel painting at Jingdezhen following the Taiping Rebellion and the destruction of the Imperial kilns in 1855 when a number of skilled painters of ceramics were out of work at the Imperial kilns and set up their own kilns and production, which became known as the Qianjiang School Ω This Lot was imported from outside of the UK, under the Temporary Admission regime 5% import VAT will be charged on the ‘hammer” and 20% VAT will be charged on the ‘buyer’s premium