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Lot Essay
Lu Dong (zi: Kuisheng) was a famous early nineteenth century Yangzhou lacquerer who made items for the scholar's studio, snuff bottles and even furniture. See G. Tsang and H. Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong Museum of Art, nos. 63, 64, 85 (a snuff bottle), 149, 216 and 217, where further biographical details are given. Lu was one of the rare craftsmen who was able to transcend the social barriers imposed by his upbringing and be taken seriously by the literati as an artist, and he was one of the very few to find a place in the literature of the scholar class. This bottle bears the signature of Kuisheng in his usual seal script, a signature he apparently used on pieces he had made entirely by himself, as opposed to those involving workshop assistants.
For other pieces by Lu, see the prunus-decorated inkstone box and cover illustrated in Shoudou bowuguan guancang mingyan, frontispiece (but not included elsewhere in the book and not described); the prunus-decorated, irregularly-shaped inkstone box and cover inlaid with mother-of -pearl and other materials illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinhua dacidian, p. 454; a circular inkstone with painted red lacquer top and base illustrated in Four Treasures of the Scholar's Studio in the Collection of the Shanghai Museum (Magazine article), p. 100; and a rectangular sand-lacquer inkstone with cover in greenish-brown lacquer, engraved with a design of a figure on a donkey after the Yangzhou painter, Hua Yan, illustrated by G. Wu Bruce, Elegant Offerings fro the Scholar's Studio - the Jiansong Ge Collection, 2002, no. 4. For other snuff bottles, see the examples still in the Imperial Collection illustrated by Xia Gengqi, Masterpieces of Snuff Bottles in the Palace Museum, p. 35, and no. 204; an example from the Bloch Collection, illustrated by S. L. Tan, 'Chinese Calligraphy and Snuff Bottles,' JICSBS, Winter 2002, p. 16, figs. 58-9; Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no. 307, later sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 25 April 2004, 880; and R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, British Museum, no. 326.
For other pieces by Lu, see the prunus-decorated inkstone box and cover illustrated in Shoudou bowuguan guancang mingyan, frontispiece (but not included elsewhere in the book and not described); the prunus-decorated, irregularly-shaped inkstone box and cover inlaid with mother-of -pearl and other materials illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinhua dacidian, p. 454; a circular inkstone with painted red lacquer top and base illustrated in Four Treasures of the Scholar's Studio in the Collection of the Shanghai Museum (Magazine article), p. 100; and a rectangular sand-lacquer inkstone with cover in greenish-brown lacquer, engraved with a design of a figure on a donkey after the Yangzhou painter, Hua Yan, illustrated by G. Wu Bruce, Elegant Offerings fro the Scholar's Studio - the Jiansong Ge Collection, 2002, no. 4. For other snuff bottles, see the examples still in the Imperial Collection illustrated by Xia Gengqi, Masterpieces of Snuff Bottles in the Palace Museum, p. 35, and no. 204; an example from the Bloch Collection, illustrated by S. L. Tan, 'Chinese Calligraphy and Snuff Bottles,' JICSBS, Winter 2002, p. 16, figs. 58-9; Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no. 307, later sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 25 April 2004, 880; and R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, British Museum, no. 326.