Blue-and-White Porcelain Snuff Bottle with Buddhist Lion Medallions

Object/Artifact

-

The Curio Cabinet Collection

Name/Title

Blue-and-White Porcelain Snuff Bottle with Buddhist Lion Medallions

Entry/Object ID

SB3610

Description

Slender cylindrical Chinese porcelain snuff bottle decorated in underglaze blue with repeated circular medallions containing stylized Buddhist lions (shishi). The freely painted, somewhat blurred cobalt decoration gives the animals a lively appearance, complemented by blue borders at the neck and lower body. A recessed base carries an indistinct four-character underglaze-blue mark that cannot yet be read confidently. The bottle retains a blue-and-white porcelain stopper and presents as a decorative late Qing/Republic-period example.

Category

Chinese snuff bottle

Made/Created

Artist

Maker presently unidentified

Time Period

20th Century

Ethnography

Cultural Region

Continent

Asia

Culture/Tribe

Chinese

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Four-character mark in underglaze blue on recessed base, arranged in two columns. The blurred characters are not presently decipherable with sufficient confidence to establish a transcription. The mark may represent a reign mark, an apocryphal reign mark, or a hall/workshop mark; stylistic evidence does not presently support treating it as an authentic imperial reign mark.

Dimensions

Height

2-3/4 in

Diameter

1 in

Weight

37 g

Material

Porcelain

Condition

Overall Condition

Good

Acquisition

Acquisition Method

Purchase