AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE

Details

AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
SIGNED ZHOU SHAOYUAN, DATED AN AUTUMN DAY IN THE KUIMAO YEAR (1903), PAINTED AT THE CAPITAL, WITH ONE SEAL

Well painted on one side with a still-life of scholarly delights, including a central rock-sculpture, an old bronze vessel with blossoming prunus and a pot of acorus grass, and on the reverse with two birds perched on the branches of a blossoming loquat tree beneath the full moon, with the inscription and an undeciphered seal of the artist, stopper
2 1/2 in. (6.32 cm.) high

Provenance

Hugh M. Moss Ltd., London, 1977

Literature

Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no. 442
The Art of Chinese Snuff Bottle, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, p. 138

Exhibited

Christie's New York, 1993
Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994
Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1996-1997
Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1997
Naples Museum of Art, Florida, 2001 - 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon, 2002
National Museum of History, Taipei, 2002
International Asian Art Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, 2003
Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2003

Lot Essay

For details of Zhou Shaoyuan's career, see Moss et. al., A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, No. 4, Inside Painted, no. 630. He was the nephew to the famous and influential artist, Zhou Leyuan, but rarely aspired to his mastery. Of his small output, only a few are worthy of close attention, and still fewer are in a class with the finer painters he followed - this is, however, by far the finest of his works recorded.

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