A very rare Guyue Xuan enameled carved white glass snuff bottle. Imperial, Palace Workshops, Beijing, 1770-1799

Of compressed ovoid form with flat lip and flat oval foot surrounded by a footrim, carved in relief and painted with famille rose enamels with a continuous design of an eagle, standing on one leg on a rock besides grasses beneath a pine tree, the sun above framed in colorful clouds, jadeite stopper with vinyl collar
2 in. (5.99 cm.) high

Provenance: G. T. Marsh & Co., Monterey, California, circa 1977
The Neal W. and Frances R. Hunter Collection
Sotheby's, New York, 15 September 1998, lot 15
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.

Literature: C. Chu, "The J & J Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles", Oriental Art, Vol. XLIX, no. 2 (2003), p. 65

Exhibited: Christie's, Los Angeles, 2003

Notes: In 1767, the Jian Yuan was completed in the Changchun Yuan complex (a series of Imperial gardens to the West of Beijing adjoining the Yuanming Yuan, known collectively as the Summer Palace). One of the halls within the Jian Yuan was the Guyue Xuan (Ancient Moon Pavilion). The Changchun Yuan was intended as a retirement home for the Qianlong Emperor, although he never took up full-time residence there. The Guyue Xuan was completed in 1767, prompting the Emperor to order a group of wares, mostly enamels on glass, bearing the name of that particular pavilion. Hugh Moss dealt with these intriguing mid-reign enamels and their evolution in "Mysteries of the Ancient Moon", JICSBS, Spring 2006. The Court apparently had insufficient enamelers to meet the new demand, prompting the introduction of new enamelers at the Court and the ordering of enameled ware for the Court from distant centers, probably including Yangzhou.

This bottle is an unusual example of the classic Guyue Xuan carved-relief type. After the initial period of development of the Guyue Xuan style, which evolved from the earlier Qianlong Palace workshops style, there followed a period of masterly works, confidently painted with a range of decorative subjects with the enamels under unusual technical control. These occur either in single-plane examples, enameled on the flat surface of the bottle, or in double-plane examples where the glass is carved in relief first and the enamels decorate the relief areas and complete the design with some surface painting. The carved group most probably evolved from the single-plane group. The classic wares probably developed at some time in the 1770s and continued until the Emperor's death in 1799. Another common feature of top-quality relief Guyue Xuan works is that they have mostly dispensed with neck borders, allowing for more obvious incorporation of white space into the design. By discarding the borders and panels around the main subjects, the design became all the more powerful.

The carved-relief examples provide evidence of the close link between the Guyue Xuan enameled wares and the Palace Workshops, for they required close co-operation with an established, highly-skilled glassworks and carving facility. As a rule, the double-plane wares have the main design carved in relief but it is completed with painting on the flat ground.

The motif of an eagle standing on one leg, with sun and pine tree imparts several symbolic meanings. An eagle (ying) perched on one leg (duli) is a rebus for the phrase yingxiong duli ('A great man towers over his peers'). The imagery evokes ideals of courage, loyalty and the ability to achieve great things. The combination of an eagle and a pine tree conveys a wish that such a great man will live a long life. See a very similar example illustrated by M. Hughes, The Blair Bequest. Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, p. 121, no. 138

Christie's. Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J&J Collection,part V. 17 September 2008. New York, Rockefeller Plaza