AN INSCRIBED YIXING STONEWARE 'LANDSCAPE' SNUFF BOTTLE, QING DYNASTYChina, c. 1770-1830. Of flattened globular form, surmounted by a tapered cylindrical neck with a flat lip, supported on an oval foot ring, each main side with a circular panel painted in slip with a pavilion standing under a prunus tree below a rock and with birds. The base with a two-character markQianlong and possibly late in the period.Provenance: From a private collection in Orpington, Bromley, United Kingdom.Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear and some firing irregularities.Stopper: Glass in imitation of jadeWeight: 41.9 gDimensions: Height including stopper 59 mm. Diameter neck 12 mm and mouth 6 mm.Yixing in Jiangsu province gives its name to this distinctive stoneware. In production for nearly a thousand years in the same place, Yixing ware only came into artistic prominence in the later Ming dynasty, when it was adopted by the scholar class as a suitable material for teapots and thence for other items in the scholar's studio. Slip-decorated wares constitute a considerable portion of the known snuff bottle output in this material.The title ‘Slip Master’ has been used for an artist who developed this group of wares, all of which seem toe from a single workshop, possibly even from a single hand. His works sit quitefortably in the mid-Qing period at some time between, say, the 1770s and the 1830s. Most of his bottles are undated, but the dates that do occur range from 1780 to 1822.Auction resultparison:Type: RelatedAuction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2015, lot 37Price: HKD 137,500 or approx.EUR 19,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: An inscribed Yixing stoneware slip-decorated 'landscape' snuff bottle, Ziqiang, 1783Expert remark:pare the slip decoration, motif, and size (59 mm)清代宜興紫砂《山水》鼻煙壺中國，約1770-1830年。扁圓形壺身，直頸，平口，橢圓形圈足。壺身兩面開光，泥漿彩繪製山水景觀。圈足内有“乾隆”兩字款，可能來自乾隆時期後期。