Chinese Laque Burgaute SNUFF BOTTLE, 19th C.

Snuff Bottles

$675

Material

Laque Burgaute

Color

Multi-Color

Origin

China

Age / Period

1800-1849

Dimensions

Height: 2.24 inches (5.7cm) - not including stopper, Width: 1.64 inches (4.2cm), Thickness: 0.87 inches (2.2cm)

Condition

Estate / Pre-owned

This is a fine Chinese Laque Burgaute (gold, silver, and iridescent mother-of-pearl foil inlaid into black lacquer) Snuff Bottle in an oval shape. The body, sides, bottom, neck, and shoulders decorated with geometric patterns and floral designs. The center medallions on both sides of the bottle, and the top of the original stopper decorated with a geranium flower, which symbolizes happiness, good health, good wishes, and friendship. The bottom has a mother-of-pearl inlaid of a flower. This great looking bottle is in excellent preserved condition. Bottle Measurements Height: 2.24 inches (5.7cm) - not including stopper Width: 1.64 inches (4.2cm) Thickness: 0.87 inches (2.2cm) Weight: 0.4 ounces "The hollowing is very well done, following the outer contour up into the shoulders and around the body, but leaving a fairly heavy foot (0.52 cm). This feature was clearly a matter of choice rather than a question of saving time or effort, as the detailing is superb, with a perfectly circular interior base and a neat right-angled wall rising up from it. This cannot have been an easy task through so small a mouth and with the restrictions of a long, only slightly flaring inner cylinder to the neck. It speaks volumes for the commitment of the artist that he would go to so much trouble on a feature invisible to the user, particularly if the bottle were full of snuff. The formal integrity is also perfect, with the unusual circular concavity of the foot, the neat foot rim, and the detailing of neck and lip, all superbly carved. It is the subtlety of the shaping, however, that transforms a perfectly executed bottle into a serious sculptural statement. The cylinder tapers upwards toward the neck before curving inward at the shoulders; the difference in diameter between the lower and upper ends of the cylinder is only 1.3 mm, but the visual effect is considerable, giving a far greater impression of sturdiness than would have been achieved with a straight-sided cylinder. The final touch of genius is found in the even slighter flaring of the neck to offset the taper of the body, which is a tiny difference (less than 0.5 mm) but again visually powerful. There are few clues as to origin and dating. The heavy base might indicate a palace workshop source, as might the use of flawed material. The cylindrical form is another possible clue to such an attribution. There is an inscribed cylindrical chalcedony bottle from the collection of Yongxing 永瑆 (1752 -- 1823; Kleiner 1987, no. 142), which, although smaller in size, is of very similar form, even though the slightly flaring neck terminates with an upper neck rim. The neck rim is a typical palace feature on hardstone snuff bottles, and it is likely that Yongxing, the eleventh son of the Qianlong emperor, had ready access to the palace workshops. If the two are connected formally, a date from the late-Qianlong into the early-Daoguang period would be the most likely, although a broader possible dating range has been left. This would also tie in with the large number of cylindrical porcelain snuff bottles that seem to have been made from the end of the Qianlong period onwards. Many of these with blue-and-white-dragons and unglazed bases incised with concentric circles are obviously imperial in nature." Bottle Measurements Height: 2.47 inches (6.2cm) - not including stopper Diameter: 1.08 inches (2.8cm) Weight: 2.4 ounces