Snuff Bottle Wan Shou Wu Jiang

QING PERIOD 1644 to 1911

AN OUTSTANDING IMPERIAL STYLE 珐琅彩 FALANGCAI SNUFF BOTTLE

The bottle of circular form.

A roundel of imperial yellow set with four pink peony flowers and green trailing leafy stalks.
Centred within another in cobalt blue with the seal type character for Sho - long life.
The same design on both sides of the bottle.
The shoulders each with two white background panels, having a character in red.
In between a stylised lotus flower with extending curling stems.
All set against a superb aquamarine ground.
The collar stippled pink dots, four Sho characters between a yellow band above and below.
Around the foot the motif of four pink peony flowers is repeated.

The base with a Blue Qianlong Seal Mark on a white ground.

Formerly the property of a Japanese collector

Condition: Excellent. Cap is not original.

Refer Large Images for details, quality and condition, they also form the description.
Depending on your computer monitor / phone / etc colour may vary to actual.

Dimensions are maximum measurements
Height about: 5.4 cm
Width about: 4.7 cm
A$1800

The characters in the white panels read "Wan Shou Wu Jiang.
The Imperial birthday wish.
Until the end of Imperial China the four character phrase Wan Shou Wu Jiang was reserved for the birthdays of the emperors and empresses of China.
The phrase translates as 'may you have ten thousand longevities without boundary'.
Many similar interpretations seem to exist such as 'Ten thousand years of boundless longevity'.

Wanshou wujiang, literally 'countless years of long life without limit' comes from the Shijing (Book of Odes or Classic of Poetry), comprising poems and songs dating from the 11th to the 7th century BC, and traditionally believed to have been one of the 'Five Classics' compiled by Confucius (551-479 BC).

This superb bottle is comparable in quality to those bottles produced in the Imperial Workshops of the Imperial Palace, 造 辦 處 Zaobanchu .

Enamel snuff bottles painted with European scenes were a favourite of the Chinese Court and Chinese collectors in the Qing Period 1644 to 1911.
Snuff bottles were in great demand by western collectors starting in the 19th century and still are.
Snuff bottles with European style artworks were normally based on prints and books transported to China by travellers.
The demand for Chinese art and antiques exploded when the first appropriated artworks taken from the Summer Palace made their way back to England France etc.
Considered by all the major experts such as Bob C. Stevens (the Collectors Book of Snuff Bottlers 1976) and the major famous collections, such as Guo'an. Bloch. Meriem. J & J. to name a few.
The finest of all snuff bottles are those that are enamelled on copper, brass, glass, gold.
The art of enamelling was introduced to the Chinese Court in the Kangxi era 1654 to 1722, by the Jesuit Guiseppe Castiglione (Lan Shining).