Page 36 - CHRISTIE'S Barron Collection Snuff Bottles 09/13/17

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AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE
SIGNED WANG XISAN, DATED TO THE WINTER
OF GENGZI (1960), BOTTLE 1750-1850
The clear crystal bottle is decorated on one side with a blue qilin with thick green mane and
tail below an inscription incorporating a signature, Wang Xisan, and a cyclical date gengzi
(1960), followed by a seal, ‘Xisan’, and the reverse with an ochre-colored water bufalo within
a mountainous landscape beneath a further inscription referring to the scene.
2º in. (5.7 cm.) high, tourmaline stopper
$15,000-20,000

PROVENANCE

Robert Kleiner, London, 2004.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 3963.
Besides his work in enamels on glass (see lot 224 in this catalogue) Wang Xisan was
also a premiment artist of inside-painted snuf bottles. Born in 1938, Wang Xisan (Wang
Ruicheng) was the star pupil of Ye Bengqi and Ye Xiaofeng, who were the sons of Ye
Zhongsan, who revitalized the Beijing school of painting in the late 1950s. Wang also
studied the paintings at the Palace Museum, and his subjects tend to be more varied than
those of his teachers.
Today, Wang’s earliest works from 1958 to the early 1960s are now amongst the rarest.
Wang is known to have never repeated a composition. The present subject, with a qilin on
one side and a water bufalo on the reverse, appears to be unique amongst his known works.
For a discussion of the artist see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuf Bottles,
the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 6, Part 1, Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 273-275.
庚子年（1960） 王習三作水晶内畫麒麟圖鼻煙壺
壺：1750-1850年

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