Moulded Longevity

Fuzhou, 1770–1850
Height: 5.34 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.53/1.02 cm
Stopper: cinnabar-brown lacquer on textile, with integral black-lacquered cork and spoon; original

Provenance:
Arthur Gadsby
Robert Kleiner (1991)
Bloch Collection
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 26 November 2013, lot 169
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.

Published:
Stevens 1976, no. 758
Keliner, Yang, Shangraw 1994, no. 261
Moss, Graham and Tsang, no. 1524
Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent, The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection of Snuff Bottles.  Part One. Imperial Influence over the Snuff Bottle Arts.

Exhibited:
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May–June 1993
Hong Kong Museum of Art, March–June 1994
National Museum of Singapore, November 1994–January 1995

 

Golden-brown, brown, and black lacquer on textile; with a flat lip and a protruding concave foot surrounded by a flattened foot rim; decorated on each main side with an identical design of a formalized shou (longevity) character set on a diaper-pattern ground made up of squares within squares, contained within an elaborated, foliate raised frame based on a formalized lingzhi, the exterior with a painted layer of golden-brown lacquer on a ground of brownish-black; the interior of black lacquer.

Alexander Whittaker