141 - A RARE BASSE-TAILE ENAMEL ‘SECRET COMPARTMENT’ SNUFF BOTTLE ATTRIBUTED TO GUANGZHOU, 1820-1900

A RARE BASSE-TAILE ENAMEL ‘SECRET COMPARTMENT’ SNUFF BOTTLE ATTRIBUTED TO GUANGZHOU, 1820-1900 To Be Sold Without Reserve Bronze, transparent blue, white and pale, turquoise-blue enamel, silver foil and gold, of modified meiping (‘prunus-blossom vase’) form with a long, waisted neck, wide mouth, flat lip and protruding, flat, circular foot, the screw-threaded foot with a cylindrical box and cover fixed to it revealed when it is removed and a hidden lower section of the bottle is revealed, the foot with a milled edge; decorated, basse-taile, with a surface design of thin silver-gilt sheets engraved and painted with the design on a transparent blue enamel over further carved sheets of silver beneath, the main design with two circular medallions, one with a squirrel on a grape-vine, the other with a scrolling pattern of fruiting finger-citron (‘Buddha’s-hand’) branches interspersed with two formalized, seal-script Shou (Longevity) characters, above a base band of formalized flowers and a shoulder band of bats beneath further formalized floral bands, the interior of the upper bottle covered with white enamel, the interior of the lower, hidden compartment in turquoise-blue, the foot and lip, and the entire circular container attached to the foot in bronze Height: 6cm Provenance: A Private French Collection Betrand de Lavergne, Paris, September 2006 Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 19th March 2007, (a copy of the original invoice available) One other bottle is known in this technique with a similar hidden lower compartment (Hugh Moss Records), raising the question of why it was needed. Certain possibilities present themselves. It may have been for hiding opium or some other sensitive substance. It may also have been designed to smuggle something past some sort of security system. In the Imperial examination system, candidates were locked in a cubicle while they wrote their exams and were not allowed to take anything in with them. Two typical means of cheating were to inscribe sections of the classics on the inside of one’s clothing, or on a handkerchief. It is possible that since a snuff bottle would probably have been allowed to accompany the candidate, the cheat could have inscribed in tiny characters large sections of the Classics on both sides of a piece of paper and rolled it up tightly inside the bottle. The first is the more likely reason, since the latter would not need the tightly covered container fixed to the foot, he could simply have rolled his paper into the empty base of the bottle, and had more space. It was obviously, however, designed for some nefarious purpose. This type of basse-taille enamel, derived from European style, is rare in snuff bottles. It was one of the arts practised at Guangzhou, and many pieces were made during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth century for the Court, but no doubt private wares were made as well, which this appears to be. The over-large stopper, which can only be the original, provides yet again evidence that our modern-day idea of an ideally matching stopper did not necessarily coincide with the original aesthetic. A hint as to dating may be found in a large, covered box of this type of enamel which is in the Inner Wedding Hall of the Tongzhi Emperor in the company of what appear to be a range of wares made at the time (see Imperial Court Furniture and Ornaments, Chinese Arts and Crafts (H.K.) Ltd., Hong Kong 1982, unpaginated - first illustration, left, with a better illustration in the centre of the book). This suggests that this type of ware continued to be made for the Court up until 1862, and probably thereafter 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