A WELL-CARVED RED AND DARK-GREEN LACQUER SNUFF BOTTLE

PROBABLY IMPERIAL, 1730-1800

Details

A WELL-CARVED RED AND DARK-GREEN LACQUER SNUFF BOTTLE
PROBABLY IMPERIAL, 1730-1800
The bottle is carved through the red lacquer to the dark green ground on one side with two figures seated at a table drinking tea beneath plantain and pine trees. The reverse shows the hero Wu Song from The Water Margin engaged in a fight with a tiger, a circular shou character forms the base.
2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm.) high, black and red lacquer stopper

Provenance

Margaret Prescott Wise Collection.
Robert Kleiner, Belfont Company Ltd., Hong Kong, 24 October 1995.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 1985.

Literature

H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, London, 1971, pp. 100-101, no. 164.

Exhibited

Boston, International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, The Barron Collection, 23-26 September 2008.

Brought to you by

Margaret Gristina

mgristina@christies.com +1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

Wu Song, who is described in The Water Margin as handsome and had various nicknames including ‘the pilgrim’ and ‘tiger fighting hero’. He was believed to have been a student of archer Zhou Tong, and was also a master of several other martial arts, being particularly skilled in the use of the staff.

A comparable bottle with a shou character carved on the base, from the J Collection, is illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang in The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J&J Collection, Vol. II, New York, 1993, p. 527, no. 310.

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