Page 102 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

475
A RARE INCISED GOURD SNUFF BOTTLE,
Signed Wentong, Beijing, 1860 - 1910
Formed from a natural double-gourd with bone cylinder neck,
incised on both bulbs with various deities and legendary figures with
inscriptions identifying the scenes on the upper bulb as ‘spirit of the
wind’ and ‘fisherman at sea’, and those on the lower bulb as two
luohan and with the signature ‘carved at the capital by Wentong’;
stopper.
3in (7.7cm) high

$6,000 - 8,000
1860-1910 天然葫蘆陰刻人物鼻煙壺 《文通》款 北京

Provenance:
Unidentified mainland Chinese source, Jinanfu, Shandong Province,
1926.
The Ko Collection, 1998
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd. The J & J Collection
Christie’s New York, Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J & J
Collection, Part IV, 22 March 2007, lot 83

Exhibited:
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria,
New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 124

Gourds have been used since the earliest of times in many cultures
as natural containers. Growing in a wide variety of shapes and sizes,
the dried rind of the fruit becomes a very light, impervious container
which, if the mouth is kept narrow, can be easily stoppered and made
air-tight. The gourd symbolizes fertility and good fortune and here is an
appropriate form given the Daoist nature of the engraving around this
bottle.

For an unadorned gourd snuff bottle in the Palace collection, see
Snuff Bottles in the National Palace Museum, with an introduction by
Chang Lin-sheng, Taipei, 1991, p. 270, no. 413. For a discussion of
the relatively rare use of engraved decoration on gourd bottles, more
typical of the late Qing engraving encountered on glass and porcelain
bottles, see Christie’s, 22 March 2007, lot 83. The slim bone neck is an
elegant touch and typical of Palace gourd wares.

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