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, all 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

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

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Lot Essay

Enameled porcelain bottles of the Daoguang period are characterized by a wide range of subject matter, among which many are narrative in character. The design on this bottle was a standard Imperial type for the period, depicting a scholar burning the midnight oil. Three others of this design but of varying shapes remain in the Imperial Collection in Beijing; see Snuff Bottles, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, nos. 336, 339 and 362. See also one in H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, no. 300; one in D. Low, More Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, no. 173; and one from the Kardos Collection.