79 - AN AMBER-COLOURED ENAMELLED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE IMPERIAL, PALACE WORKSHOPS, 1767-1799, SIGNED WU YUCHUAN

AN AMBER-COLOURED ENAMELLED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE IMPERIAL, PALACE WORKSHOPS, 1767-1799, SIGNED WU YUCHUAN To Be Sold Without Reserve Finely enamelled in the ‘famille-rose’ palette with yellow double gourds hanging from leafy flowering tendrils, with three bats in flight, the reverse with a ten-character poem in opaque white enamel: 春遊芳草地 夏賞綠荷池 in spring, walk through fragrant meadows in summer, admire the green lotus pond two seals in yellow and puce enamel, reading: shan gao (as tall as the mountains’) and Wu Yuchuan Height: 6cm Provenance: Sotheby’s New York, Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles, 12th February 1985, lot 153, (original invoice available) Shan gao (‘as tall as the mountains’) is a popular wish for longevity and happiness and also appears in association with other imperial inscriptions on Qianlong-period painted enamel wares Enamelled glass snuff bottles with the signature Wu Yuchuan are discussed by the authors Moss, Graham, Tsang, in A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Volume 6, Part I, Hong Kong, 2008, pp.195-198 where it is noted that this group has connections to the ‘Hu Xuan’ group and the Guyue Xuan group as a whole For a full discussion of the artist and his connections to the palace see Hugh Moss, ‘Mysteries of the Ancient Moon’, Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Spring 2006, pp.23-27, where a number of his signed bottles are illustrated including this very one, page 25, fig.23, black and white photograph The poem is attributed to Wang Zhu ( ), a scholar from the Northern Song Dynasty, 11th/12th century. It is 汪洙 a core segment of a famous collection called (The Prodigy’s Poems / Poems by a Child Prodigy) 《神童詩》 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