Rachelle Holden Collection
"Through Western Eyes"
Photo: Christie's
Rachelle R. Holden began collecting in 1974, drawn initially to snuff bottles as decorative objects before arriving at a more ambitious understanding of what they represented. Over time she came to see them as microcosms of the higher forms of Chinese art, encoding in miniature the same principles of calligraphy, poetry, painting, and symbolic meaning found across the broader tradition. That conviction drove not only her collecting but a determination to decode the rebuses and layered iconography that elude most Western collectors, a pursuit she documented in her 1994 publication Rivers and Mountains Far from the World. The collection was sold at Christie's New York in 2000 and again in 2022, dispersed across two major auctions that together confirmed its standing as one of the most intellectually engaged private collections of its generation.
Formed by a collector determined to decode the symbolism and iconography that elude most Western collectors, the Holden Collection stands as one of the most intellectually engaged private collections of its generation.
Additional resources
From the collection
Imperial famille-rose enamelled glass with birds and butterflies
China (Beijing, Palace Workshops), Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736–1795). Snuff bottle. Glass superbly enamelled in famille-rose with shaped panels depicting two birds on flowering branches on one side and two butterflies among flowers on the other, reserved on a gilt ground; four-character incised Qianlong seal mark; gold stopper. Provenance: Li Daohong Collection, Shanghai; Zhang Zhongyin Collection, Shanghai; Zhang Tungyu Collection; Robert Hall, London, 1995; Rachelle R. Holden Collection, New York. Photo: Christie's.
Yixing stoneware with slip-decorated landscape
China (Yixing), 1750–1830, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Stoneware decorated in brown slip with a continuous mountainous river scene, depicting a farmer crossing a bridge beneath a moon on one side and a pavilion among rocks and overhanging cliffs on the other; jadeite stopper. Photo: Christie's.
White and russet jade with sages
China, 1750–1830, Qing dynasty, Suzhou School. Snuff bottle. White and russet jade carved in high relief with a bearded sage pouring from a vase among pine and rocks on one side, and a kneeling sage in prayer on the other. Photo: Christie's.
Tricolor overlay glass with continuous river scene
China (Yangzhou), 1800–1890, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. White glass with green, pink, and yellow overlay carved with a continuous river scene depicting a figure on a sampan on one side and a farmer crossing a bridge on the other, with clouds, trees, pavilion, and house throughout; stone stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Imperial painted enamel with magpies and flowers
China (Beijing, Palace Workshops), Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736–1795). Snuff bottle. Painted enamel of small ovoid form on rectangular foot, decorated with a pair of magpies on leafy branches on one side and sprays of peonies, convolvulus, narcissus, chrysanthemum, and roses on the other; four-character Qianlong mark in blue; matching painted enamel stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Imperial carved and enamelled glass in the form of a flower basket
China (Beijing, Palace Workshops), 1750–1800, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Glass carved and enamelled in the form of a wicker basket filled with flowers, with looped handle over one narrow side; three-character Guyue xuan mark on base; glass stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Overlay glass with gourds on mulberry-red ground
China, 1770–1830, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Transparent mulberry-red bubble-suffused glass with green and yellow overlay carved with a leafy vine bearing double gourds; glass stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Inside-painted glass with portrait of Tan Xinpei as Huang Zhong
China, circa 1899–1900. Snuff bottle. Glass, inside-painted with a portrait of the Beijing opera star Tan Xinpei in the role of Huang Zhong on one side and a laudatory poem on the other; signed Ma Shaoxuan with Shaoxuan seal; glass and pearl stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Pale russet and white jade with monkey gathering lingzhi
China, 1750–1820, Qing dynasty, Suzhou School. Snuff bottle. Pale russet and white jade carved with a monkey gathering lingzhi beneath a pine branch on one side, and an inscription reading cai zhi tu ("picture of picking the herb of immortality") with Shuang shan seal on the other; malachite stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Inside-painted crystal with Orchid Pavilion Preface and Ba-po
China, 1897. Snuff bottle. Rock crystal, inside-painted with the Lanting Xu (Orchid Pavilion Preface) on one side and ba-po (eight broken things) on the other; signed Ma Shaoxuan and dated mid-autumn of the dingyou year, 1897; jadeite stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Famille-rose porcelain with scholar and palindrome poem
China (Jingdezhen), 1820–1850, Qing dynasty, Daoguang period. Snuff bottle. Famille-rose porcelain decorated with a circular panel depicting a scholar with antiques and boy attendant on one side, encircled by a palindrome poem readable forwards and backwards; Daoguang four-character seal mark in iron red; enamelled porcelain stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Red and black overlay glass with boys on buffalos and fishermen
China (Yangzhou), 1840–1880, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Opaque white glass with red and black overlay carved with boys on buffalos wading through waves with bats above on one side, and two fishermen hauling nets below a crane in flight on the other; bing wu seal possibly corresponding to 1846 and Qianlong three-character seal mark; coral stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Cinnabar-red overlay on black glass with fishermen
China (Yangzhou), 1780–1881, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Black glass with cinnabar-red overlay carved with a continuous scene of fishermen in conversation, carrying baskets and poles, with bats and swirling clouds above; carved red lacquer stopper. Photo: Christie's.
Inside-painted glass with boy on buffalo and goldfish
China, 1899. Snuff bottle. Glass, inside-painted with a boy on a buffalo reaching for his blown-off hat on one side and three goldfish in a lotus pond with a swooping swallow on the other; signed Ye Zhongsan and dated mid-autumn of the jihai year, 1899, with huayin seal; pink tourmaline stopper. Photo: Christie's.
White jade in the form of a cinched sack with monkey
China, 1740–1850, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. White jade carved in the form of a cinched sack with a monkey clambering up a peony spray to untie the ribbon at the neck; glass stopper. Photo: Christie's.
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