**A FINE AND RARE ENGRAVED WHITE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE

The prose text on the reverse was written by Li Bo (701-762) and is entitled 'Preface to Poems Composed at a Spring Evening Banquet Held at the Peach Garden':

'Heaven and earth provide lodging for all. Time is like a traveler in transit. Like a dream we live in a floating world. How often do we really feel happy? People of past ages used to carry torches about to engage in merrymaking in the night. How wise of them to do so! As Spring beckons us with misty scenery and the universe affords us pleasant views, now let us assemble here at the fragrant Peach Garden to enjoy each other's company. My intelligent younger colleagues are all as talented as [Xie] Huilian. As for me, I am ashamed that in poetry I can only be second to [Xie] Kangle. While still admiring [the garden] our convivial conversation gradually drifts to more cultivated topics. As we sit there among the blossoms feasting and swiftly passing along earcups [filled with wine], we [soon] get inebriated under the moon. [In this state of mind] how can one express his refined feeling if he does not produce some good compositions? Those who fail to compose poems will be compelled to imbibe three gallons of wine, a rule set by the Golden Valley Garden.'

Xie Huilian (397-433) was the younger clansman of the renowned Eastern Jin poet Xie Lingyun (385-433), whose literary skills were much admired by the latter. Xie Kangle is Xie Lingyun, a fourth/fifth century eccentric, Kangle being a feudal title which he had inherited. The Golden Valley Garden was the palatial residence of Shi Chong (249-300), located in Luoyang, Henan province. Wealthy artists or patrons threw parties known as yaji ('elegant gatherings') in the Garden, at which poetry competitions were frequent, the punishment for not coming up to scratch being to drink wine so as to loosen any inhibitions.

Zhou Honglai was among the finest of the artists who specialized in micro-engraving at the end of the Qing dynasty. Cf. a snuff bottle by Zhou, sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 25 April 2004, lot 868, from the J & J Collection. Although the Xuejiao Shanfang is not recorded, the bottle was most probably made specifically for the owner of the retreat.

Special Notice

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