Snuff bottle with a Chinese lady and fan

1735-1796

Imagery imitating Baroque art was common for snuff bottles in the Qianlong period, indicating the cultural exchange between 18th-century China and the West. A popular European motif was the “mother and child in a landscape”—the Chinese variation here shows a lady and her son playing with a fan in a garden.

Gilt copper with some gold, and overglaze enamel decoration

2 1/16 x 1 5/8 x 15/16 in. (5.2 x 4.1 x 2.4 cm)

Overall h.: 2 5/16 in.

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection

33.922

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Now on view at the Asian Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Chinese Ceramics and Snuff Bottles from the Ming and Xing Dynasties, January 14, 2006 - April 2, 2006

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesClysdale, Heather Colburn. The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society (Autumn 2008): p. 5.

Foong, Ping, Xiaojin Wu, and Darielle Mason. "An Asian Art Museum Transformed." Orientations vol. 51, no. 3 (May/June 2020): p. 49, reproduced fig. 5 and on cover.

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