Page 115 - Christie's Chinese Snuff Bottled the Holden Collection March 24, 2022

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A MOLDED GOURD HEXAGONAL 'SNUFF BOTTLE'
KANGXI MOLDED FOUR-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD
(1662-1722)
Each side is molded with alternating scenes of deer and cranes, all below
a band of shou characters.
2 in. (5 cm.) high, softwood stopper
$7,000-9,000
PROVENANCE:
Sotheby's London, 23 March 1988, lot 332.
Christie's New York, 3 December 1992, lot 385.
Rachelle R. Holden Collection, New York.
LITERATURE:
JICSBS, Summer 1988, p. 26, fig. 11.
JICSBS, Winter 1992, p. 39, fig. 8.
Arts of Asia, March-April 1993, p.135. fig. 385.
R. Holden, Rivers and Mountains Far From the World - The Rachelle R.
Holden Collection, A Personal Commentary, New York, 1994, pp.132-133,
no. 53.

For further discussions on gourd vessels see W. Weng and Y. Boda,
The Palace Museum: Peking, Treasures of the Forbidden City, p. 287, and
H. Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, nos. 91 and 92. Hugh M. Moss,
ibid, p. 124, states, "The Kangxi and Qianlong periods mark the height
of decorated gourds for the good reason that both Emperors were
keen collectors. The Kangxi Emperor's enthusiasm is vouched for by
his development of this humble art form in the palace, and is further
endorsed by the demonstration of the Qianlong Emperor's interest,
when he wrote a foreword to a poem entitled 'In Praise of a Gourd
Vessel', as follows: "The manufacture of gourd vessels started in the
Kangxi era when the Emperor ordered that gourds be grown into
molds to produce bowls, jars, dishes, and boxes as required. The vessels
are admirably natural and yet exquisite, something not possible by man
alone."

The emperor Qianlong even presented a molded gourd snuff bottle to
King George III, illustrated in The National Palace Museum Monthly of
Chinese Art, p. 33, no. 74. The Daoist symbolism seen on the present
bottle of cranes, deer and shou characters, is enhanced by the gourd,
itself a Daoist object.

清康熙 匏制鶴鹿同春紋鼻煙壺 四字楷書款

來源:
倫敦蘇富比, 1988年3月23日, 拍品編號332
紐約佳士得, 1992年12月3日, 拍品編號385
何瑞秋珍藏, 紐約
出版:
《國際中國鼻煙壺協會學術期刊》, 1988年夏季, 頁26, 圖11
《國際中國鼻煙壺協會學術期刊》, 1992年冬季, 頁39, 圖8
《亞洲藝術》, 1993年3/4月刊, 頁135, 圖385
何瑞秋, 《Rivers and Mountains Far from the World - The Rachelle R.
Holden Collection, A Personal Commentary》, 紐約, 1994年, 頁132-133, 編
號53

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