Chinese Underglaze Blue and Red Snuff Bottle, Late Guangxu, c. 1900

A Chinese snuff bottle depicting a man resting against a double gourd bottle with a boy fanning an oven with a steaming cooking pot.

In good condition, but without lid. No marks.

Firing underglaze copper-red is very difficult, requiring the precise control of heat, kiln atmosphere and air circulation in the kiln, as well as the careful preparation of the copper pigment. Circa 1855, the Taiping rebels overran Jingdezhen, the main Chinese centre for producing porcelain. One of the consequences of this was that the technique of firing underglaze red was lost and not recovered until around 1895. This bottle is an early example of this returning skill. Other indicators of age are the evidence of kiln grit, the orange oxide line between the glaze and the foot, and the quality of the blue cobalt. The poorly refined cobalt is pushed by the brush to the outer edges or end of the stroke. This ‘hollow line’, as seen under a magnifying glass, is characteristic of Chinese underglaze blue porcelains from around 1850 to 1940.