A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE INSIDE-PAINTED SNUFF BOTTLE

SIGNED YE ZHONGSAN, MADE AT THE CAPITAL, BEIJING, DATED THE NINTH MONTH OF THE YEAR YISI (1905), WITH ONE SEAL YIN ('SEAL')

Details

A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE INSIDE-PAINTED SNUFF BOTTLE
SIGNED YE ZHONGSAN, MADE AT THE CAPITAL, BEIJING, DATED THE NINTH MONTH OF THE YEAR YISI (1905), WITH ONE SEAL YIN ('SEAL')
Of flattened form, the glass bottle painted on one side with a scene from the Beijing opera, The Story of a Black Pot, the other with a scene from another opera, Sanniang Giving Guidance to the Orphan Boy, inscribed in draft script 'Made at the capital by Ye Zhongsan in the ninth month of the year yisi for the pure pleasure of the honorable sixth elder brother Yuanting', stopper
2 3/8 in (6.12 cm.) high

Provenance

Hugh Moss

Literature

JICSBS, September 1975, pp. 3 and 4
Snuff Bottles of the Ch'ing Dynasty, pp. 122 and 138m, no. 227
JICSBS, Autumn, 1982, p. 38, figs. 95 and 95a
Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no. 437

Exhibited

Hugh M. Moss Ltd., London, September 1974
Hong Kong Museum of Art, October-December 1978
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

This is a unique subject for Ye Zhongsan and one of his masterpieces. The standing figure in black robes in the scene from The Story of a Black Pot proves Ye's capabilities as a portrait painter on par with Ma Shaoxuan's. The compositions on both sides are unusually strong and the subdued palette of colors, suddenly enlivened by the use of the brilliant vermilion, make this a figural masterpiece.

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