55 - A YIXING BROWN AND BEIGE STONEWARE ‘PEKINESE DOGS’ SNUFF BOTTLE, HU RUNFU, 1830-1930

A YIXING BROWN AND BEIGE STONEWARE ‘PEKINESE DOGS’ SNUFF BOTTLE, HU RUNFU, 1830-1930 To Be Sold Without Reserve Of compressed spherical form, each side with a moulded Pekinese dog in beige slip applied to the brownish body of the bottle, and framed in a circular panel defined by repetitive, impressions of a formalized leaf or petal set above a single-unit leiwen (‘thunder pattern’), the narrow sides with moulded animal-head and rope- ring handles, the foot with two impressed seal of the artist, Hu and Runfu Height: 6.1cm Provenance: David Bowden, London, July 2002 Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 16th August 2002, (original invoice available) Hu Runfu is listed by K. S. Lo as an early twentieth-century potter (K. S. Lo, The Stonewares of Yixing from the Ming Period to the Present Day) in his ‘Index of Potters.’ Much of this index, however, was arrived at from seeing the signature on a piece and then judging its period. Few of the potters are firmly established by either biographical details or dated works. Although possibly from the early part of the twentieth century, it seems more likely that this dates from the late Qing period in the nineteenth century. No other snuff bottles are so far recorded bearing Hu’s name. The method of production here is similar to a range of late Qing Yixing wares, where moulded design elements are luted onto the surface of a vessel with slip prior to firing, and a single carved design element is repeatedly pressed into the malleable surface to create borders and frames. The mask and ring handles also seem to be from the same mould and luted to the surface. These two beasts, also from the same mould, are amusingly depicted and an extremely rare variant on the popular Daoguang design of Pekinese dogs prompted by the Imperial love of these creatures at the time. Although nothing else like this is recorded, it is unlikely to be unique, otherwise there would be no need to go to the trouble of carving a negative mould to mass-produce the decorative elements. At the time they would have been made in batches. The subject matter may suggest that Hu worked as early as the Daoguang period, and the mid-century is a likely date for this bottle, although it may be a little later responding to the popularity of the subject 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