1750-1800

Details

**A FINELY CARVED RUBY-RED OVERLAY BUBBLE-SUFFUSED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
1750-1800
Of flattened ovoid form, carved through the layer of brilliant red overlay with a continuous windswept landscape in which two fishermen, both in woven grass cloaks and hats, one carrying a fishing rod, the other an oar, cross a bridge over a rushing stream towards their moored sampan, on which a drying shirt on a pole flaps in the wind, all beneath pine and other trees growing on rocky ground, jadeite stopper with tourmaline finial
2 11/16 in. (6.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Hugh M. Moss Ltd.
B. T. Lyons
Sotheby's London, 20 April 1982, lot 13
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.

Literature

JICSBS, December 1977, p. 17, nos. 14 and 15
JICSBS, June 1978, p.41, no. 7
Chinese Snuff Bottles (Hong Kong Museum of Art), pp. 24 and 124, no. 7
Arts of Asia, July-August 1982, p. 133, lot 13
Arts of Asia, September-October 1987, p. 146
100 Selected Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J & J Collection, front cover and no. 86
J & J poster
Gazeta de l'Antiquaire, June-July 1988, p. 7
JICSBS, Autumn 1989, front cover
Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no.
372
Silver Kris, February 1995, p.42, fig. 4
Arts of Asia, November-December 1998, p.86, fig. 40
The Miniature World-An Exhibition of Snuff Bottles from the J & J Collection, front cover and pp. 10 and 11

Exhibited

Hong Kong Museum of Art, November-December 1977
Christie's London, October 1987
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

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

This is one of the most famous of all Qianlong glass overlay snuff bottles, mainly because of its extraordinary evocation of stormy weather, creating a delightful sense of the high wind which threatens the fishermen's hats, lashes at the washing on the pole, and tears leaves from the trees as it thrashes the branches above the heads of the two fishermen. The dating of this bottle has recently been revised following further research into glass snuff bottles, and can be confidently attributed to the Qianlong period.

Compare the red overlay glass bottle illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles - The White Wings Collection, p. 104, no. 69, which shares a similar sense of composition and movement and extraordinary detail and may very well be by the same hand.

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