Details
AN YIXING STONEWARE SNUFF BOTTLE
HE XINZHOU, YIXING, 1836
Incised on one side with a cartouche containing a copy of the inscription from an ancient bronze vessel, 'Gong, son of the Mu family, cast [this jue] in commemoration of father Kui', flanked on either side by two further inscriptions, one in clerical script reading 'The Mu Gong jue', and the other in draft script, 'Carved by Xinzhou at the beginning of summer in the bingshen year', the reverse undecorated, the foot impressed with the seal Xinzhou, stopper
2 1/8 in. (5.42 cm.) high
Provenance
Galia Baylin
Arthur Gadsby, Hong Kong, 1978
Literature
Bob C. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, no. 342
Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J&J Collection, vol. 1, no. 259
Asian Art, October 2003, p. 16, fig. 3
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, 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

He Xinzhou, also known as He Shilin, was an Yixing potter and inscriber of wares from the first half of the nineteenth century, whose full name appears on other recorded wares, although not on other snuff bottles. He was an accomplished calligrapher and well-versed in archaic scripts. The inscription here is copied from a jue (wine vessel), probably of the late Shang dynasty, which also suggests a scholarly level of connoisseurship in antiques. Many nineteenth-century scholars associated themselves with Yixing potters and became accomplished potters, or decorated pieces themselves.

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