Page 10 - September 21 2021 Curtis collections snuff bottles Bonhams NYC
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TWO INSIDE-PAINTED SNUFF BOTTLES Tang Zichuan was an artist working in the north at Beijing. He
One dated 1895 produced both figural and scenic bottles, but seldom dated his works
The first bottle signed Yong Shoutian and dated yiwei year (1895) and (for a rare example see lot 602 in this sale). His work is unusually varied
painted with equestrians and other official figures illustrating a story in style, and he usually uses a wide range of colors, as here.
from Liaozhai zhiyi, painted with a pink-blush ground; another signed
Tang Zichuan and painted with various surreptitious meetings in a For an example of a figural bottle with a similar color scheme though
continuous scene around the bottle. different subject, see Humphrey K.F. Hui, Lai Suk Yee and Peter Y.K.
2 7/8in (7.3 cm); 2 3/4in (7cm) high (2). Lam, Inkplay in Microcosm, Inside-Painted Chinese Snuff Bottles, The
Humphrey K.F. Hui Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese University of
$1,200 - 1,800 Hong Kong, 2002, no.122.
For another example of a ladies figural scene from the ‘Story of the
內畫山水人物鼻煙壺兩隻 Red Chamber’, see Hui et. al., ibid, no. 116.
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