†A RARE AND FINE CHINESE SILVER AND GILT-METAL ‘EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE’ SNUFF BOX AND COVER

†A RARE AND FINE CHINESE SILVER AND GILT-METAL ‘EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE’ SNUFF BOX AND COVER
QIANLONG 1736-95

The oval body with a slightly domed hinged lid, finely decorated in repoussé, with gold, copper and silver European landscape scenes of animals and buildings beside a river, with trees and shrubs before distant mountains; the rim with a band of ruby-coloured paste, beads, the straight sides with a continuous band reserved with four cartouches, containing weapons and tools, divided by columns and surmounted by a band of entwined scrolls. The interior reveals a mirror to the inside of the lid, 202g, 8.8cm wide, 7cm deep, 3.7cm high.

Cf. Hou Yi-Li, Lifting the Spirit and Body, The Art and Culture of Snuff Bottles, p81, no.1-020, fig.1. For a closely comparable oval gilt-metal snuffbox with a similar design currently in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

清乾隆 錯金銀嵌玻璃西洋山水建築鼻煙盒