Blue-and-White Porcelain Snuff Bottle with Dragon amid Waves and Clouds
Name/Title
Blue-and-White Porcelain Snuff Bottle with Dragon amid Waves and CloudsEntry/Object ID
SB3613Description
Chinese porcelain snuff bottle of tall cylindrical form, painted predominantly in underglaze cobalt blue with a sinuous dragon moving among stylized clouds or flame-like scrolls above turbulent waves, with restrained iron-red/pink accents to the shoulder border. The composition draws upon Qing imperial-style dragon imagery, symbolizing authority, auspicious power and the dragon's traditional command of water and rain. The recessed glazed base bears a four-character underglaze-blue 光緒年製 (Guangxu nian zhi, “Made during the Guangxu reign”) mark. While the mark and decorative vocabulary deliberately reference Guangxu-period porcelain, the mark should presently be treated as reign-style or potentially apocryphal rather than evidence of manufacture during the reign itself.Category
Chinese snuff bottle
Made/Created
Artist
Maker presently unidentifiedTime Period
20th CenturyEthnography
Cultural Region
Continent
AsiaCulture/Tribe
Chinese