A SMALL BLUE AND WHITE AND IRON-RED AND GILT PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLEJuren (Tang) two-character mark to the base, circa 1916 Of rectangular shape, painted on each main face within a molded border with a coastal or lakeside figural landscape scene, the narrow sides with an iron-red textile-pattern-ground with wan symbols and the neck with a fish-roe design, highlights in gilt; stopper. 1 3/4in (4.6cm) high 1916年前後 青花礬紅瓷胎飾描金開光山水鼻烟壺 《居仁》款 Provenance: Sotheby's, New York, 31 May - 1 June 1994, lot 713 Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong , Hong Kong, Snuff Bottles from the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Part IV, 28 November 2011, lot 148 Robert Kleiner, 15 January 2012 Literature: Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, Treasury, Vol. 6, Part 3, Arts of the Fire , Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 892-893, no. 1424 Exhibited: International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria, New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 138 See Jan-Erik Nilsson, Goteborg, Glossary, Jurentang (Hall where Benevolence Resides) for a lengthy discussion on the wares produced bearing this mark. The hall in Zhongnanhai (apound in Beijing) was the building in which Yuan Shikai lived and also where he had his office around 1915. It was a Russian-style reception hall built by Guangxu and named Hoi Yin Tang, (Yiluan Dian) and renamed 'Jurentang' by Yuan Shikai when he took up residence in the building, initially as President of China. In 1916, a certain Guo Baochang was appointed by Yuan Shikai to oversee the production of imperial Hongxian wares. It appears that at this time or perhaps for a few years afterwards, ceramics bearing the Hongxian mark or the Jurentang mark were produced to quite a high level of sophistication at Jingdezhen. Yuan Shikai stood down as the Hongxian Emperor on 22 March 1916 after 83 days on the throne; resumed his presidency; and died in June 1916. See also Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, Treasury, Vol. 6, Part 3 , Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 892-893, no. 1424, for a full description of this bottle and the recorded other examples from this small group. Another with the same mark is illustrated by Hugh Moss, Snuff Bottles of China , London, 1971, no. 326 and also illustrated by Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles III , London, 1990, no. 70. That this group is associated with both this brief reign and his personal hall name seems confirmed by another example formerly in the J & J Collection which bears a Hongxian reign mark and the same iron-red decoration and blue and white panels but on a circular not rectangular form bottle, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, Vol. 1 , New York, 1993, p. 385, no. 226 and another (possibly the same) illustrated by Hugh Moss in an illustrated handlist 'The Barron Collection' produced for the ICSBS Convention in Boston in 2008, p. 41, no. 4550.