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China. Of rounded rectangular form with a cylindrical neck, flat lip, slightly splayed oval foot, each side with a recessed panel decorated with a slip design, one depicting two Pekinese frolicking beneath flowers issuing from rockwork, the reverse side featuring two doves in a garden with ornamental rocks, bamboo, and a butterfly in flight, all set against a ground covered with cobalt blue enamel except the mouth and foot rims.
Provenance: Robert C. Eldred Co., 27 August 1998, lot 156. The Francine and Bernard Wald Collection of Fine Snuff Bottles, likely acquired from the above, according to the family’s lawyer. Thence by descent. Eldred’s is the oldest continuously operating auction house in New England, founded in 1947 by Robert C. Eldred, Sr. In 1978, his son Robert C. Eldred, Jr. became President of the company, leading it for over three decades until his retirement in 2014. Francine and Bernard Wald were a devoted couple and passionate snuff bottle collectors, with a particular love for agate bottles—amassing a collection of over 1,400 pieces. Active participants in the early ICSBS conventions, they acquired many works from leading dealers such as Hugh Moss and Robert Hall, Clare Chu and the Late Robert Kleiner. Francine, a physicist and teacher, and Bernard, a senior lawyer in NYC, often spent summers in Cape Cod coinciding with the sales held at Eldred's auctions. Other collectors, the Dickers, the Dorfs, the Golders, and the Hartmans would visit and ‘Fran and Bernie' as they were known colloquially, held a famed 'Spaghetti' party each year, with all the collectors present. Their prized agate bottles, especially those featuring monkeys—Bernie’s zodiac animal—were proudly displayed in their Greenwich Village home. The couple also wrote articles for the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and firing irregularities, two small areas of touchup to the enamel near the foot.
Stopper: Coral cabochon in a silvered platelet, carved spoon
Weight: 45.5 g
Dimensions: Height including stopper 72 mm, Diameter neck 15 mm and mouth 7 mm
The Daoguang Emperor and his consort were fond of doves and small dogs, respectively, as subjects of paired doves and Pekingese dogs became popular during this period. The symbolism imbued in the pairs of dogs and doves implies a wish for happy marriage.
The dove-and-dog Yixing bottles were made in sets and in several different series. One of the finest versions of all is seen in the present lot, with its rounded rectangular shape, blue surround and multi-colored slip decoration. The slip is both painted with a brush and plastered on and carved, or at least manipulated with a blade of some sort. This is the same technique as that of the Slip Master (see for example Moss, Treasury 6, lots 1448–1451), but it is a quite different, more evolved style, with a number of different colors of slip used almost like enamels. This is typical of artistic evolution in the snuff-bottle arts, where a simple idea, drawn initially from the painting style of the literati with its predominance of monochrome ink painting, evolves to a more complex style as the possibilities of the medium are explored. These bottles with their more intriguing designs and multiple colors may be the later wares by the Slip Master, perhaps with a son taking over, or they may be from a different workshop, although we are inclined towards the first option. The bulk of the known examples probably date from the earlier part of the Daoguang reign, although the type may have remained popular throughout the reign. As a rule, however, it is not likely that an Imperial type remained fashionable for thirty years without noticeable changes in style.
The dogs and doves on this series are always extremely well depicted, full of life, and the limited range of colors of slip available to the carvers are very thoughtfully and effectively used. While the form remains reasonably constant, and the subject matter is always the same, there are several different compositions within the series. Either each was made as an individual composition of the same theme, or each series was redesigned. Two more are illustrated in Stevens 1976, as nos. 334 and 336, both equally well worked. Between them, however, is a rare example (no. 335) with an enameled design of the same subject, still with the blue surround, that is quite poorly painted, even by the decorative standards of Yixing. The painted version may come from a time later in the reign when the enamel workshop responsible for so many earlier bottles was beginning to show signs of decline.
Yixing in Jiangsu province gives its name to this distinctive stoneware. In production for nearly a thousand years in the same place, Yixing ware only came into artistic prominence in the later Ming dynasty, when it was adopted by the literati class as a suitable material for teapots and thence for other items for the scholar's studio. Slip-decorated snuff bottles constitute a considerable portion of the known output. Slip is simply liquid clay which can be applied like a thick paint or used for gluing segments together.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams New York, 16 March 2015, lot 1028
Price: USD 37,500 or approx. EUR 44,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An enameled and slip-decorated Yixing snuff bottle, 1800-1880
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, and subject. Note the size (6.4 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 22 March 2007, lot 38
Price: USD 33,600 or approx. EUR 45,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An unusual slip-decorated stoneware snuff bottle, Yixing, 1820-1850
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, and subject. Note the size (6.4 cm).
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