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Lot Essay
The couplets to each side read:
Xin yuan jin sheng li hen qu
Yu wei he ping xi hou fu
This can be translated as:
When doing things with the heart be careful,
be peaceful and respectful in speech and good luck will come.
The boy on a buffalo is a symbol of the power of the human mind over brute strength. The theme of a homeward bound boat in a storm has been a popular one amongst painters since the late Song Dynasty (13th Century). Early examples depicted 'Returning Home' after the famous ode, Guiqulai by Tao Yuanming.
See Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 564-565, no. 370, for a lengthy discussion of Gan Xuanwen, "the artist generally regarded as the father of inside painted bottles." Gan worked in Lingnan in Guangdong Province.
See also Hugh Moss, 'The Lingnan School of Snuff Bottle Interior Painters - Part I, I.C.S.B.S., Journal, Autumn, 1991, in which the author discusses a single surviving handscroll in the Collection of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the date of which has been rendered partly illegible by damage, and deduces that it must have been painted between 1807 and 1814, with the help of a reference on the scroll to the Jiaqing reign (r. 1796-1820). The dating on this bottle can also be confirmed to 1816 by the addition of the Jiaqing reign title.
The earliest dated inside-painted work by Gan, fourth month, 1815, is in the Princeton University Museum, New Jersey, and the latest recorded of his works is from 1823. There are, in addition, a large number of bottles by Gan, or attributed to him, which are undated.
See also Robert Kleiner, op. cit., p. 564 where the author continues "The small rock crystal snuff bottle with a a raised panel is a standard form for works by Gan and he probably had these made to order for his painting, with the interior left unpolished, in order to help the ink adhere properly to the surface."
Xin yuan jin sheng li hen qu
Yu wei he ping xi hou fu
This can be translated as:
When doing things with the heart be careful,
be peaceful and respectful in speech and good luck will come.
The boy on a buffalo is a symbol of the power of the human mind over brute strength. The theme of a homeward bound boat in a storm has been a popular one amongst painters since the late Song Dynasty (13th Century). Early examples depicted 'Returning Home' after the famous ode, Guiqulai by Tao Yuanming.
See Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 564-565, no. 370, for a lengthy discussion of Gan Xuanwen, "the artist generally regarded as the father of inside painted bottles." Gan worked in Lingnan in Guangdong Province.
See also Hugh Moss, 'The Lingnan School of Snuff Bottle Interior Painters - Part I, I.C.S.B.S., Journal, Autumn, 1991, in which the author discusses a single surviving handscroll in the Collection of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the date of which has been rendered partly illegible by damage, and deduces that it must have been painted between 1807 and 1814, with the help of a reference on the scroll to the Jiaqing reign (r. 1796-1820). The dating on this bottle can also be confirmed to 1816 by the addition of the Jiaqing reign title.
The earliest dated inside-painted work by Gan, fourth month, 1815, is in the Princeton University Museum, New Jersey, and the latest recorded of his works is from 1823. There are, in addition, a large number of bottles by Gan, or attributed to him, which are undated.
See also Robert Kleiner, op. cit., p. 564 where the author continues "The small rock crystal snuff bottle with a a raised panel is a standard form for works by Gan and he probably had these made to order for his painting, with the interior left unpolished, in order to help the ink adhere properly to the surface."