A FAMILLE ROSE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE DAOGUANG FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN IRON-RED AND OF THE PERIOD (1821-1850)

The snuff bottle is of compressed spherical form with flat lip and recessed foot surrounded by a footrim, one side decorated with an attendant standing outside the arched entry of a walled compound where an elderly scholar sits at a table in his study rising above the outer walls. The body is decorated in a setting of trees and blue-green rocks that continues onto the reverse where an eight-character inscription, Xingyue jiaojie/Minghe zaitian ("The stars and the moon shine brightly and clearly and the Milky Way hangs in the sky"), is written above and to the side of another tree and bamboo. The foot inscribed with a four-character mark in iron-red seal script reading Daoguang nian zhi (Made in the Daoguang period).
2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm.) high, stopper

Provenance
Potter's Gallery, Vancouver
Sold at Christie’s New York, The Meriem Collection Important Chinese Snuff Bottles, 19 September 2007, lot 668