Snuff bottle, famille rose porcelain, China, 19th-20th century

A famille rose porcelain snuff bottle China, Qing Dynasty, 19th/20th century Of flattened ovoid form, with convex rim and recessed flat oval base Decorated in polychrome famille rose enamels on a turquoise ground with stylised floral scrollwork and a band of pendant lingzhi heads to the shoulders With two reserves depicting interior scenes with female figures and children, one showing a child holding a musical chime with an inscription praising the beauty of the young woman, the other with a woman arranging a flower in her hair before a mirror, with an inscription on the joy brought by children The mouth with gilt rim and green glass stopper The base with an apocryphal four-character Qianlong seal mark in underglaze blue Jingdezhen production.

The base displays a calligraphic anomaly characteristic of this specific typology, visible in the inverted "S"-shaped stroke of the "Qian" character. As documented in the reference bibliography, the decoration is reversed in relation to the original enamel-on-metal models, an intentional inversion which allowed the formation of symmetrical pairs, responding to the taste and demand of European collectors of the period.

The manufacture of these pieces was driven by the increasing circulation of court works of art on the Western market after 1860 and 1912.