Page 12 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

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AN EARLY INSIDE-PAINTED TALL HEXAGONAL ROCK Bearing no signature, this bottle must remain as attributed to the
CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE Lingnan (Guangdong) school in southern China, working in the early
Lingnan School, 1800-1825 19th century. However, it can be confidently placed in the school
One main side painted with a pavilion and plants, the other with two based on the use of a facetted crystal bottle, popular in so many of the
monkey’s, one poking a wasp’s nest, the narrow adjacent facets bottles signed by the most famous artists of the school, Gan Xuanwen
painted with bamboo and flowering plants; stopper. and Yiru Jushi. Similarly the style of the painting in subdued brown
2 5/8in (6.6cm) high tones could easily be attributed to either of these artists, but more
likely the former. For other examples of this early group of bottles, in
$2,500 - 3,500 which the comparison is obvious, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham
and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and
1800-1825 水晶内畫「封侯圖」六棱鼻煙壺 嶺南派 George Bloch Collection, Vol 4, Part 1, pp.28-89, no’s 438, 445 and
455.
Provenance:
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., 2006 The subject of monkey’s poking a wasp’s nest is a popular one in the
Ruth and Carl Barron (no. 2685) snuff bottle oeuvre. The Monkey, hou, is a pun for a high ranking noble,
Christie’s New York, The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Part V, 13 marquess, hou. The wasp, feng, and monkey together form the rebus
September 2017, lot 305 ‘conferring the rank of marquess’ fenghou. For further discussion, see
Michael C Hughes, The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Chinees Snuff
Bottles, Baltimore, 2009, pp.244-245, no. 190.

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