CHINA, QING DYNASTY, DAOGUANG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARKS IN IRON-RED AND OF THE PERIOD (1821-1850)

This design of a Manchu official leading a camel and another on horseback leading a dog can be found on Daoguang mark and period snuff bottles such as the snuff bottle sold by Christie's New York on 19 March 2008, lot 206. It has been suggested that this theme of two Manchu officials on different mounts derives from renderings of the Imperial hunting trip called Qiuli (Autumn hunting), which was instituted by the Kangxi emperor and continued into the Daoguang reign in the early nineteenth century. Other interpretations of this subject relate to visual puns with various auspicious messages including the combination of the dog and the camel as a visual pun for the term, huanluo, meaning joy and happiness; the dog and the horse a visual pun for loyality, chuanma, while the officials depicted signify a bureaucratic career much aspired for by most intellectuals.