BOTTLE, 1750-1860; EMBELLISHMENT, JAPANESE, POSSIBLY TSUDA FAMILY, KYOTO, 1930-1960

细节

**A RARE EMBELLISHED AGATE SNUFF BOTTLE
BOTTLE, 1750-1860; EMBELLISHMENT, JAPANESE, POSSIBLY TSUDA FAMILY, KYOTO, 1930-1960
Of compressed rounded-rectangular form, the honey-colored stone with irregular tubular inclusions, the narrow sides with lion-mask and fixed-ring handles, the main sides embellished with soapstone, carnelian, malachite, sapphire and lacquer with a continuous procession of a caparisoned camel and six boys, one holding the reins while another strikes a gong, two more in the saddle platform - one playing a trumpet while one waves a flag, and two more boys following behind carrying aloft a large tray bearing a vase of blossoming branches, jadeite stopper
2 3/16 in. (5.5 cm.) high

来源

Sotheby's New York, 26-27 September 1978, lot 195

出版

JICSBS, Autumn 1990, front cover
Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no.
302
JICSBS, Autumn 1996, p.7, fig. 9

展览

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

注意事项

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.

拍品专文

Displaying a masterful use of materials and tasteful compositions, the present bottle must certainly rank among the finest bottles whose embellishment is attributed to the Tsuda family of Kyoto, Japan. There are, however, many indications that similar work was done well before this family was supposed to have worked, and it is possible that the finest embellished bottles are earlier. A number of theories surrounding the Tsuda family are discussed at length in the notes for the present bottle in Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, pp. 512-15.

Noteworthy here is the painstaking embellishment on the embellishment, with small details inlaid in contrasting materials or painted in lacquer, seen here on the saddle-blanket of the camel and on the clothing of the children. All attest to the Japanese taste for exotic and complex surface decoration.

A yellow jade bottle formerly in the Caldwell Collection and now in the North Carolina Museum of Art is possibly by the same hand. Illustrated by B. C. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, no. 824, where the bottle is mistakenly described as agate, and in JICSBS, June 1976, front cover, the bottle is embellished with a scene of an elephant mounted with a red-lacquered saddle platform on its back and surrounded by a group of boys, reminiscent of the present scene.