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拍品專文
For a bottle of slightly different shape but very similarly carved including the unusual feature of stiff-rimmed hats on the lion-mask handles, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, pp. 151-156, no. 84. The authors note that the J & J Collection example is "one of the most extraordinary snuff bottles known and ranks as the most exciting bottle made from this material."
"The shape and the distinctive mask and ring handles (the fearsome origins of the beasts have been totally domesticated with the addition of what appears to be a typical Chinese hat), as well as the subjects and style, identify it as one of a small group of bottles in this material which presumably all come from the same workshop. In fact, although this is a small group, it contains the majority of snuff bottles of Duan stone, which was not often used outside of the production of inkstones. They are characterized by low-relief designs of distinctive dragons, the distinguishing features of which are bulky haunches and short, multiple-spiked tails, set amidst clouds; or by kui dragons, often in the form of the character long ('dragon'), as here. They frequently bear the same Imperial poem referring to the beauty of the material, probably by the Qianlong Emperor who was a prolific poet and during whose reign the group appears to have been made."
For other examples, see Pamela Friedman, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Pamela R. Lessing Friedman Collection, Hong Kong, 1990, no. 60, with ordinary and kui dragons; Hugh Moss, Chinese Snuff Bottles, London, 1976, no. 175, with dragons and inscription; and Sotheby's, London, 11 October 1974, lot 172, with dragons, an inscription and the studio name Jingzhai ('Studio of Veneration'); Alexander Brody, Old Wine into Old Bottles, A Collector's Commonplace Book, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 104, with dragons and an unusual inscription in relief seal script: 'Precious treasure [from the] Duan Stream'; Zhongguo Biyanhu Zhenshang, Hong Kong, 1992, no. 327, with kui and inscription; and Christie's, New York, 3 December 1992, lot 382 (with dragons and inscription).
"The shape and the distinctive mask and ring handles (the fearsome origins of the beasts have been totally domesticated with the addition of what appears to be a typical Chinese hat), as well as the subjects and style, identify it as one of a small group of bottles in this material which presumably all come from the same workshop. In fact, although this is a small group, it contains the majority of snuff bottles of Duan stone, which was not often used outside of the production of inkstones. They are characterized by low-relief designs of distinctive dragons, the distinguishing features of which are bulky haunches and short, multiple-spiked tails, set amidst clouds; or by kui dragons, often in the form of the character long ('dragon'), as here. They frequently bear the same Imperial poem referring to the beauty of the material, probably by the Qianlong Emperor who was a prolific poet and during whose reign the group appears to have been made."
For other examples, see Pamela Friedman, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Pamela R. Lessing Friedman Collection, Hong Kong, 1990, no. 60, with ordinary and kui dragons; Hugh Moss, Chinese Snuff Bottles, London, 1976, no. 175, with dragons and inscription; and Sotheby's, London, 11 October 1974, lot 172, with dragons, an inscription and the studio name Jingzhai ('Studio of Veneration'); Alexander Brody, Old Wine into Old Bottles, A Collector's Commonplace Book, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 104, with dragons and an unusual inscription in relief seal script: 'Precious treasure [from the] Duan Stream'; Zhongguo Biyanhu Zhenshang, Hong Kong, 1992, no. 327, with kui and inscription; and Christie's, New York, 3 December 1992, lot 382 (with dragons and inscription).