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.