Page 68 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

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A MINIATURE INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE See Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of
Signed Meng Zishou Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.
Dated dingwei year, corresponding to 1907 4, Part 2, Inside Painted, Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 504-505, no. 632,
Of rounded rectangular shape, painted in a continuous scene around for a lengthy description of this bottle and where the author’s note
the body with fan-tailed goldfish swimming below the weeping that Meng Zishou produced a reasonable number of miniature bottles
branches of a willow with two swallows flying above alongside the during his career, and this example is amongst the finest. They
inscription and a negative seal script seal shou in iron red; stopper. also note that “Meng followed other artists from time to time, being
1 1/2in (3.7cm) high inspired in particular by Ma Shaoxuan, whose portraits of actors
and other individuals he obviously borrowed, and his colourful figural
$4,500 - 5,500 style almost certainly owes a debt of some kind to Ye Zhongsan. He
was, however, another of those artists who tended to bring his own
丁未年（1907） 玻璃内畫燕飛魚塘微型鼻煙壺 《孟子受》款 compositions and style to borrowed works in a creative manner. The
subject of a tree wrapping around the bottle with various insects, fish,
Provenance: or birds is probably taken from Zhou Leyuan, whose influence over
Robert Hall, London, 1987 the Beijing school was so pervasive, but this version of it is entirely
Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1987-2014 Meng’s own and, as far as it is indicated, was not taken up by anyone
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, Snuff Bottles from the Mary and George Bloch else. It is characterised by the tree taking over as the main element
Collection: Part IX, 24 November 2014, lot 187 of the subject. Meng painted this subject a number of times, both in
miniatures and standard size. It first appeared in the previous year,
Literature: 1906, in three recorded versions, all miniatures. One is illustrated by
Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong, 1987, pp.158-159, Bob C. Stevens, The Collector’s Book of Snuff Bottles, New York and
no. 78 Tokyo, 1976, pp. 246-247, no. 917 and the other two are a pair of
Robert Kleiner, Boda Yang, and Clarence F. Shangraw, Chinese Snuff bottles from the Dodge Collection”.
Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch,
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 356 For another miniature bottle by Meng Zishou, probably made in 1905
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese or 1906, with a horse under a willow to one side (and a portrait of the
Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part 2, Beijing opera actor Tan Xinpei in the role of Qin Qiong on the other),
Inside-Painted, Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 504-505, no. 632 see Moss et. al. op. cit., pp. 504-505, no. 632 and later sold at
Bonhams, Hong Kong, Snuff Bottles from the Mary and George Bloch
Exhibited: Collection: Part V, 27 May 2012, lot 124.
ICSBS Convention, London, 12-18 October 1987
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, Exhibition: Chinese
Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary
Bloch, Catalogue, no. 356
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, November 1994 - February
1995
ICSBS Convention, Christie’s London, October 1999

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