Page 43 - September 21 2021 Curtis collections snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

632
A SIGNED AND DATED ROSE-PINK OVERLAY OPAQUE WHITE For a multi-color overlay bottle from the Humphrey Hui Collection,
GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE with near identical scenes on each side and also bearing the same
Wang Su, 1821 inscription but with a different cyclical date, (Bingshen, 1836), see
Of flattened rounded rectangular shape, the rose-pink overlay Christopher Sin, Humphrey Hui and Po Ming Kwong, A Congregation
delicately carved on one main face with a female Daoist immortal on a of Snuff Bottle Connoisseurs, An Exhibition of Chinese Snuff Bottles,
cloud above a deer clutching a lingzhi spray in its mouth and standing Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 66-67, no. 73.
on rockwork with further lingzhi, the other with a figure of Shoulao
holding a staff with a crane and ribboned gourd standing nearby whilst See also Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of
another crane flying above clutches a large peach-fruit spray with Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 5,
a bat alongside, the narrow sides each carved with a five character Part 3, Glass, pp. 776-778, no. 1046 for another bottle by Xiaomei.
inscription one reading xinsi Xiaomei zhi (1821, Xiaomei created) and
the other Liru jushi Yi (The style of Liuru Jushi [Tang Yin, 1470-1523]), Among the names appearing with some regularity on Li-School
a simple ring of glass at the neck and foot. carvings is Wang Xiaomei, an alternative name adopted by the
2 5/8in (6.6cm) high, stopper prominent, nineteenth-century literatus and painter, Wang Su (1794-
1877). Moss, ibid., also notes another bottle dated to 1821, a
$2,000 - 3,000 rectangular, olive-brown on white overlay, with inscriptions down the
narrow sides in seal script but does not indicate where it can be found.
An intriguing feature of the group of bottles bearing his name is that
1821年 王素 涅白地套紅料仙人圖鼻煙壺 《小某作》款 the style is unmistakably that of Li Junting. For further discussion of
this, see the same authors, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The
Provenance: Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 5, Part 1, Glass, p. 50-52.
Arte & Antiquidade, Rio de Janerio, Aug 1995

Illustrated:
Emily Byrne Curtis, Pure Brightness Shines Everywhere: The Glass of
China p. 110 figs 12.4, 12.5

THE EMILY BYRNE CURTIS COLLECTION OF CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES | 41