Page 183 - March 22 2022 Bonhams

(two views)

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
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A FINE SUZHOU AGATE BOTTLE For further discussion of the designation, School of Zhiting, see
School of Zhiting, 1750-1850 Michael C. Hughes, The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Chinese
the dendritic agate carved in graduated levels to depict a continuous Snuff Bottles, Baltimore, 2009, pp.122-126, no’s. 95 and 96.
rocky landscape with small areas of black-brown inclusions carefully The term was coined by Hugh Moss in an attempt to clear up a
used to depict a figure playing a qin on a rocky ledge above a fawn long-held misconception, that the well-known group of bottles
to one narrow side and a large deer with right leg and head raised to classified as ‘Suzhou School’ and identified by distinctive features
the other narrow side, the larger faces of the plain semi-transparent that include ‘serrated rockwork’ formed by serrated ridges with
agate with a cliff and stream beneath a wutong on one face and a small indentations, represented Suzhou style as a whole. This
baggy-robed figure looking up to the branches of a pine in front of assumption is unsustainable, given the substantial number of jade
the large deer to the other face, a fairly wide mouth opening and a and other hard-stone objects, other than snuff bottles and pendants,
simple dimple base with flat oval foot ring. produced in Suzhou, which lack this feature entirely. Therefore a new
1 7/8in (4.8cm) high, stopper, box designation, pertinent to bottles alone, School of Zhiting, was coined.
The artist Zhiting, whose precise dates are unknown, produced at
$12,000 - 18,000 least six bottles and countless pendants, carved with this distinctive
serration and bearing his name.
大約 1750-1850 蘇州芝亭流派 瑪瑙巧彫高士山林撫琴鼻烟壺 The beautiful town of Suzhou with its canals and gardens attracted
painters, calligraphers, poets, musicians and scholars alike. Their
Provenance pursuits seemed to have appealed to the craftsmen of Suzhou, who
Private Canadian Collection, Ontario, 1990’s depicted them at every opportunity it seems.

出處： For a series of Zhiting School Suzhou agate bottles, see G. Tsang
加拿大安大略省私人收藏，1990 年代 and H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Hong Kong
Museum of Art, 1978, pp. 114-5, nos. 204-7. See, also, a group of
For other Suzhou agate bottles, see Christie’s, New York, 22 March - Zhiting School small agate bottles from the collection of Denis Low
23 March 2012, lot 1601; illustrated by R. Kleiner, Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened
Respect, Singapore, 1999, nos. 190-3.

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