Just a Few Snuff Bottles

Bloomberg is reporting Bonhams will be offering a collection of over 1,700 antique Chinese snuff bottles starting May 28 in Hong Kong. The estimated value of the collection if expected over $32 million. The Qing Dynasty bottles were collected over several decades by Hong Kong businessman George Bloch and his wife Mary.

Bloomber reports

Newly wealthy Chinese are keen to acquire high-quality objects from their heritage, particularly when associated with emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties, said dealers. Prices for porcelain of these eras increased 48.2 percent between 2005 and 2009, according to U.K.-based database Art Market Research.

The first of an expected 10 biannual Bloch auctions will be held on May 28, when 140 bottles may raise more than 1.5 million pounds, said Bonhams.

“The collection was begun at a time when not many people were collecting snuff bottles in a serious way,” Hall said.

A mid-18th-century porcelain “moon flask” bottle painted with a winter landscape commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor is expected to fetch as much as HK$2 million ($257,634). A similarly dated Beijing enamel bottle showing a Western mother and child has a high estimate of HK$3 million.

Another Qianlong “European subject” enamel bottle, from the collection of Vancouver philanthropist Mary Margaret Young, sold at Christie’s International in New York in 2008 for a record $825,000.

To read the full Bloomberg article, click HERE.