A CINNABAR LACQUER 'PHOENIX' SNUFF BOTTLE 1780-1880A CINNABAR LACQUER 'PHOENIX' SNUFF BOTTLE1780-1880The body of round outline and with lightly convex sides delicately carved with a descending phoenix with feathery tail amidst cloud scrolls to one side and an ascending phoenix to the other, each divided on the narrow sides with rockwork, all between a key-pattern band at the short spreading foot and below plantain leaf lappets on the tall cylindrical neck. 2 7/16in (6.3cm) high, stopper1780-1880年 剔紅鳳紋鼻煙壺For a bottle of similar type with an ascending and a descending phoenix amidst clouds but of different form, see Christie's New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1649.For other examples of the group See Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1994, nos. 262 and 263. It is unusual to find phoenix (fenghuang) as the primary decoration on such lacquer bottles and may suggest a final destination of the court for this group as it increasingly became synonymous with the empress.