A silhouette agate 'bannerman' snuff bottle


18th/19th centuryWell-hollowed, of flattened square form with rounded corners sloping to a cylindrical neck raised on a flared oval foot, superbly worked using the natural dark brown colour of the stone in the design, depicting a figure riding a donkey carrying a banner with a bat hovering nearby, the stone of a pale mushroom tone, stopper. 6.2cm (2 1/2in) high. (2).
|十八/十九世紀 瑪瑙巧雕騎驢圖鼻煙壺Provenance:A distinguished Asian private collection來源：亞洲顯赫私人收藏The galloping bannerman was a very popular subject in agate snuff bottles, which appears to have been designed in celebration of an imperial victory, possibly the Qianlong emperor's conquest of the Dzungar Khanate, now known as Xinjiang, between 1755 and 1759.See a silhouette agate snuff bottle, 18th/19th century, similarly using the dark brown inclusions to depict a bannerman riding a donkey, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Lifting the Spirit and Body: The Art and Culture of Snuff Bottles, Taipei, 2012, p.184, no.III-048. Compare also an example of a silhouette chalcedony 'bannerman' bottle, 1800-1850, illustrated by H.White, Snuff Bottles from China: The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, London, 1990, p.59, no.22; and see another example, illustrated by M.C.Hughes, The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Chinese Snuff Bottles, Baltimore, 2009, p.117, no.90.相近之例可參考台北國立故宮博物院藏一件十八/十九世紀瑪瑙巧雕騎驢圖鼻煙壺，錄於《通嚏輕揚－鼻煙壺文化特展》，台北，2012年，頁184，編號III-048。另見倫敦維多利亞及阿伯特博物館藏一件瑪瑙巧雕鼻煙壺，1800-1850年，見H.White，《Snuff Bottles from China: The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection》，倫敦，1990年，頁59，編號22；再參考都柏林切斯特比替圖書館藏一例，見M.C.Hughes，《The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Chinese Snuff Bottles》，巴爾的摩，2009年，頁117，編號90。