Famille-Rose and Underglaze-Blue Porcelain Snuff Bottle with Boys at Play, Wan Yu Mark
Name/Title
Famille-Rose and Underglaze-Blue Porcelain Snuff Bottle with Boys at Play, Wan Yu MarkEntry/Object ID
SB3615Description
Chinese porcelain snuff bottle of slender ovoid form, painted in polychrome overglaze enamels with a continuous scene of boys at play in a garden landscape and framed by formal underglaze-blue shoulder and foot borders. The recessed base bears a two-character underglaze-blue 玩玉 (Wan Yu) appreciative mark. Probably Qing dynasty, Daoguang–Xianfeng period, c. 1830–1860, the bottle's combination of lively narrative figure painting, cobalt-blue formal ornament and overglaze enamels is consistent with documented mid-19th-century Jingdezhen snuff-bottle production. The boys-at-play imagery is traditionally auspicious, expressing wishes for numerous descendants, family continuity, and domestic prosperity. Fitted with a stylistically coordinated blue-and-white porcelain stopper with spoon/stem; the stopper appears to be an older association, although its originality to the bottle cannot presently be established.Category
Chinese snuff bottle
Made/Created
Artist
Maker presently unidentifiedTime Period
19th CenturyNotes
Medium-High Attribution — for Qing dynasty, probably c. 1830–1860. The 玩玉 mark, porcelain body, mixed underglaze-blue/overglaze-enamel technique, figural painting, formal borders and overall form collectively correspond well with documented first-to-mid-19th-century Jingdezhen snuff-bottle production. A later Qing continuation of these styles cannot be completely excluded from photographs alone.Ethnography
Cultural Region
Continent
AsiaCulture/Tribe
Chinese