A FINE INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE

SIGNED ZHOU LEYUAN, BEIJING, DATED MID-SPRING, YIYOU YEAR (1885), WITH ONE SEAL YIN ('SEAL'); BOTTLE, 1760-1885

Details

A FINE INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE
SIGNED ZHOU LEYUAN, BEIJING, DATED MID-SPRING, YIYOU YEAR (1885), WITH ONE SEAL YIN ('SEAL'); BOTTLE, 1760-1885
Of flattened rectangular form with some net-like inclusions in the crystal, painted on the inside with ink and watercolors depicting a continuous riverside landscape in which a scholar reads at his country retreat amidst the spring trees while a fisherman ferries a woodcutter toward a bank where a farmer walks with a hoe over his shoulder, a pagoda and rooftops partially hidden by trees in the middle distance, inscribed in draft script 'Made at the north window of the study by Zhou Leyuan at the time of mid-spring in the year yiyou' with seal Yin (seal), stopper
2 7/8 in. (7.25 cm.) high

Provenance

Lucille Parker
Sotheby's New York, 1 June 1977, lot 50
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.

Literature

Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no. 407
Silver Kris, February 1995, no. 42g
Arts of Asia, November/December 1995, vol.25, no. 6, p. 128
The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, p. 129.

Exhibited

Dallas Convention, October 1985
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, 2002
Portland Museum of Art, 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

The founder of the popular Beijing school of painting, Zhou Leyuan's career spanned the period 1881 to 1893. Every single artist of the first phase of the school owed a considerable debt to Zhou, and most began their careers by copying his style and signing his name; some even appear to have devoted most of their careers to producing copies of his works. This spectacular example, in probably one of the earlier crystal bottles that so often inspired this most influential of all inside-painted artists to his finest works, comes from early in his career when he was first becoming justly famous and creating masterpieces that set new standards both technically and artistically for the art-form.

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