Qing Office Was The Historical Evolution Of Imperial Metal Tire Painted Enamel Snuff Bottle And Its Artistic Features

Snuff-bottle has get more favorite in auction market during these years, especially the metal-bodied painted enamel ones made by the Royal Workshop— Zaobanchu in Qing court, which often take the top seat of the submitting lists. However, the metal-bodied painted enamel snuff-bottle made by the Royal Workshopdoes not receive fully attentions and the studies focusing on it cannot match its recent outstanding price and arts value. On the bases of collecting plenty pictures of metal-bodied painted enamel snuff-bottles made by the Royal Workshop, consulting the raw Zaobanchu documentaries stored in the First Historical Archive of China and published essays, the author group pictures, arrange documentaries, outline the historical development of metal-bodied painted enamel snuff-bottles made by the Royal Workshop and analyses the reasons of its emerging, developing, glooming and declining in the hope of providing a more clear study of the artificial works.This thesis is divided into six parts. The first one makes a general introduction about painted enamel and metal-bodied snuff-box in France and England during 17^th century, which is useful for us to trace the origination of Chinese ones. The second, with the arriving of European missionaries and merchants, painted enamel and metal-bodied snuff-box were brought into Canton firstly, which was the authorized sole seaport of China with abroad. Then, metal-bodied painted enamel snuff-bottle (box) was settled down in Canton and got rapidly developed, even the Cantonese workers who were good at painted-enamel snuff-bottle were sent into the Royal Workshop in Peking to cooperate with European missionaries and others to produce metal-bodied painted enamel snuff bottles. The third part is a survey of metal-bodied painted enamel snuff bottle in the late Kangxi period, which is the emerging stage and characterized by traditional pot-shaped style and flower paintings. The fourth is the developing stage of metal-bodied painted enamel snuff bottle ranging from Yongzheng period to the 4^th year of Qianlong period in which it got rapid development and achieved series breaks from its style to painting contents because of the passion and subside from emperor. The fifth part is the glooming of metal-bodied painted enamel snuff bottle made by the Royal Workshop and the time is from the 4^th year of Qianlong period to the middle of Qianlong period, during this time, with the joining of many Cantonese enamel workers, metal-bodied painted enamel snuff bottle is featured with western style which is strikingly different from the ones made in Kangxi and Yongzheng periods. The last part is the declining stage of metal-bodied painted enamel snuff bottle made by the Royal Workshop and the time is from the middle of Qianlong period to the early of Jiaqing period.