Laque Burgauté Snuff Bottles

[joearp]

Beautiful Bottle Charll.  I agree with Brian you have some beautiful examples of Laque Burgaute.

[bambooforrest]

A new find [61mm]! There appears to be some signs of handling. I do not remember seeing many with calligraphy on the bottom. Maybe Richard can decipher it.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear John,

    Very nice.
The two characters are Qian Li in Hanyu Pinyin.
Qian means 'one thousand'.
Li means 'inside'.
I'm reading right to left, and don't understand the meaning. 
If the bottle is Japanese, it means 
For some reason, the Kanji converter isn't working.
And I think it is Japanese.
The nacre inlay used looks like it is similar to that used
in Thai inlay. Reddish, purplish, with green tints, as well.
I've re-written this a few times, as I've compared it to mother of pearl
inlaid objects in my home.
Best,
Joey

[richy88]

Hi John

The mark at the base is Qian Li (千里) which means a thousand miles in Chinese.

However, this was the name of a famous craftsman, Jiang Qian Li (江千里) during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty.

Lac Burgautéwas a popular decorative art and was used in many household objects including furniture, boxes, stationery, etc. It still remains a popular art in rosewood furniture decoration today.

Jiang was considered the master of this craft and many later pieces bear his name, Qian Li as the mark.

This art was later learnt by the Japanese who also produced many art objects bearing the same mark.

The motif of this bottle is the auspicious symbol of five bats surrounding the Shou character which means the five blessings with longevity (Wu Fu Feng Shou 五福奉寿).

For your reference.

Regards.


Richard

[bambooforrest]

Joey and Richard, thanks so much for your input. Maybe Charll can give his opinion if it is Chinese, Japanese or Thai.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear John,

    Thanks to Richard's breadth of knowledge,
we [and by we, I mean me  ] now know why
the mark Qian Li is on your bottle.
I forgot to add before that I once had 3 Lac Burgaute snuff bottles
from Y.F. Yang of blessed memory. All had this same Qian Li mark
on the base.
I have a copy of an early YF Yang & Co. catalogue,
which I think was made of 4 or 5 A-4 pages folded in half,
and printed then stapled.
I will dig it out and see if any Lac Burgaute bottles are illustrated.
So, I think the YF Yang & Co. catalogue is in Ireland.
I've had a friend photograph 3 items inlaid with mother of pearl:
a box of red lacquer inlaid with MoP from South Korea; a small box,
inlaid with MoP from New Zealand, where they call it Kaori shell;
and a Kiddush cup inset with pieces of NZ MoP. I bought the pieces of
shell in a crafts shop in Wellington NZ, and a Judaica craftsman made
the Kiddush cup for me.
I will post them so you can compare the material.
Best,
Joey

[rpfstoneman]

John,

I somehow missed your recent Laque Burgauté post from August 26th.  You made me work to give you an opinion on the this bottle. 

Although Joey's suggestion that this bottle may be Tai is a good one based on the simplicity of the design and the use of the round inlay elements, my gut says it is Japanese.  The Japanese used the reddish, purplish, with green tints extensively as well, and adopted the use of the Qian Li mark in a simple 2 character mark (often read as "one thousand miles') on many of the nicer laque burgauté pieces.  I've observed this Qian Li mark base mark presented as simply two characters as shown with your bottle or the two characters enclosed in a rectangular gold inlay border.     

For other Japanese bottle examples with Qian Li mark and/or use of reddish, purplish, with green shell tints see Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, London, 1995, pages 541 to 547, nos. 356, 357, 358, and 359 published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum.  As Richard states, the Qian Li mark on the base is likely in homage to the legendary Chinese lacquer artist, Jiang Qianli, who was celebrated for his mother-of-pearl inlays and was reputed to have lived in the early Qing period.

Charll

[Wattana]

Hi Everyone,

The Forum has been rather quiet lately. So I am posting a couple of new-ish acquisitions from a London auction. Believe it or not, these are my very first lacque burgauté bottles.

The first one...

A Japanese lacque burgauté snuff bottle of flattened bell shape, finely inlaid with gilt foil and mother-of-pearl, with a floral motif to each main side, bordered with a brocaded motif, over a wide band of stylized flowers; with a plain black lacquer stopper. (The stopper was missing, so I had to make one for the photo session. It is unfortunately a little too big - I'll make a better match later.)
      Height w/o stopper:  5.5 cm
      Meiji / Taisho period, 1854-1930

As is almost inevitable on older lacque burgauté bottles, there is some minor loss of the delicate gold foil on the borders of this bottle. However, the principal motif and intricate brocade pattern on the lateral sides remain intact.
 

[Wattana]

The second bottle is the more impressive of the two...

A Japanese lacque burgauté snuff bottle of compressed pear shape, finely inlaid with gilt foil and mother-of-pearl throughout, with bands of brocaded patterns, the main band centred around a chrysanthemum flower head to each main side; with an apocryphal Qian Li seal to the base. The original stopper decorated with a matching flower head.
   Height w/o stopper:  6.7 cm
   Meiji / Taisho period, 1854-1930

The art of Chinese lacque burgauté reached its peak in the 17th century, with the work of famous artist Jiang Qianli 江千里 of Yangzhou, whose surviving work mostly consists of exquisitely inlaid small vessels, like wine cups and trays. His fame was such that his name became almost synonymous with the style and technique, and his seal was applied to a large number of works executed in the technique.

Besides the original 17th century work, there is a group of very fine Japanese wares from the Meiji period bearing his apocryphal seal, often decorated with fine and dense brocaded designs, as is the case here.

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Dear Tom,
the second one is really impressive! What a nice work of Art.
Thank you for the information shared about this type of art, which I didn't know.
Kid regards
Giovanni

[Wattana]

Dear Giovanni,
Thank you. It's good to see you here again!

Regards,
Tom

[bambooforrest]

Tom, I like the unusual bell shape of the first bottle but the second one is more impressive. Great find!

[Wattana]

Thanks Charll,
They were auctioned together as one lot, otherwise I may have passed on the bell shape one.
I agree, it is a less common shape. And it slips into the pocket very nicely too!

Tom

[George]

Tom, both are very nice and agree that the second one is most impressive.

Giovanni, welcome back!

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Tom,

   I would not refuse either bottle!
I actually prefer the first one,
but admire the elegance of the second one.
Best,
joey