Page 71 - September 21 2021 Curtis collections snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

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A RARE INCISED AND SIGNED COCONUT SHELL SNUFF For a similarly decorated coconut shell bottle with flowering prunus
BOTTLE to one side and a poetic inscription followed by the signature of the
Signed Xuexuan, circa 1810-1900 carver Lu Jun on the other, see Denis S.K. Low, More Treasures from
Of flattened oviform shape, the two sides conjoined along the very the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect III, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 292, no.
narrow edges, one main face carved engraved with a prunus spray 269. For another of similar profile and incised with a pine landscape
and the three-character inscription, the other with a seven-character on one side and an excerpt of a Wang Wei poem, followed by the
poem in large characters followed by seven smaller characters which signature Yun Ying, see Christie’s, New York, 22-23 March 2012, lot
includes the signature. 1561.
2 1/2in (6.3cm) high, stopper
See Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of
$5,000 - 7,000 Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 7,
Part 1, Organic, Metal, Mixed Media, pp. 58-74, no’s. 1486-1493, for
a range of bottles from this group. The authors note that the bottles
約1810-1900年 椰殼雕花鳥詩文鼻煙壺 《雪軒》款 are made in sections from the shell of the ubiquitous tropical coconut
and joined together by pins and glue. The subject of coconut bottles,
Provenance: their attribution and dating is further developed by Hugh Moss and
A. Fernandez, Buenos Aires, September 1994 Stuart Sargent in two articles published in the ICSBS Journal, Autumn
2013, and Autumn 2014, entitled ‘Coconut Shell Snuff Bottles, Part I
The subject of the poetic inscription is in praise of the fragrance of the & II’.
prunus blossoms.
For other signed coconut bottles variously dated to the nineteenth
century see, Bonhams, Hong Kong, The Mary and George Bloch
Collection, Part I, 28 May 2010, lot 66, dated 1875 (or 1815) and
Bonhams, New York, 17 March 2014, lot 8014.

THE EMILY BYRNE CURTIS COLLECTION OF CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES | 69