JAPAN, 1860-1920

Details

A FINELY CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER SNUFF BOTTLE
JAPAN, 1860-1920
The snuff bottle is finely carved in deep relief through an upper layer of red on a middle layer of green to reveal the base layer of orange with a continuous scene of a scholar arriving on a horse on the shore of a lake with two attendants, one carrying a large umbrella over his head and the other holding a pole, as he is greeted by a woman bowing slightly towards him, while another stands behind her gazing back at a pleasure boat. A man and two women are under the canopied section of the boat and are being negotiated towards the shore by two boatmen, one with a long paddle at the prow and the other seated at the tiller in the stern, all in a landscape setting between decorative borders. The base is inscribed with an apocryphal Qianlong mark.
3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm.) high, bronze collar and lacquer stopper

Provenance

Sotheby's London, 3 December 1997, lot 466.
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.
J & J Collection.
J & J Collection, Part V; Christie's New York, 17 September 2008, lot 49.

Lot Essay

This is an exceptional example of a small group of superbly carved lacquer and ivory snuff bottles made in Japan between about 1860 and the early-twentieth century. For other examples of the group, see B. Stevens, The Collectors Book of Snuff Bottles, no. 1018 (ivory), no. 753 (two color lacquer), and no. 757, (two-color lacquer and ivory); Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, nos. 314-317 (lacquer); Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 354 (lacquer and ivory), and no. 355 (two-color lacquer).

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