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AN EARLY INSIDE-PAINTED ROCK CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE For another crystal bottle signed by Gan Xuanwen and painted with
Gan Xuanwen, Lingnan School, 1810-1825 the identical inscription, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo
Of rounded rectangular shape with each main face and narrow side Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George
with a raised rounded rectangular panel, the interior buffed to a misty Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part I, Inside Painted, pp.66-68, no. 455. For
finish to highlight the interior scene and calligraphy, one main face with further discussion on the inscription, a copy of one of Wang Xizhi’s
a scholar crossing a bridge in a mountainous river landscape near a letters from the Shiqi tie, see Peter Y.K. Lam and Humphrey K.F. Hui,
bare-branched tree, the narrow sides with single scholar’s rocks with ‘Reading the Illegible: The Shiqi tie and Gan Xuanwen’s Copies in
wispy foliage behind, the other main face with a thirty-one-character Snuff Bottles’, Oriental Art, Vol XLVIII, no 5, 2002/2003, pp. 64-73.
inscription (Qiong zhuzhang tie) followed by two small token seals of The authors translate the letter, Qiong zhuzhang tie (On bamboo sticks
the artist. from Qiong) as follows:
2 1/8in (5.4cm) high, stopper
“The lot of bamboo sticks from Qiong that you sent me last summer
$3,000 - 5,000 had all arrived. In turn, they were distributed as walking sticks to the
local elders. I have let it be known to them that the gift was provided
by you from afar”.
1810-1825年 甘烜文 水晶內畫山水詩文鼻煙壺
Wang Xizhi (303-361 CE) is revered as the ‘Sage of Calligraphy’. He
Provenance: came from a literati and aristocratic family of the Eastern Jin dynasty
Portobello Road, London, June 1995 (317-420 CE). He was instrumental in the development of new forms
of running and cursive scripts that transformed calligraphy into a
Illustrated: personally expressive medium. The most well-known collections of
Oriental Art, Vol XLVIII, no 5, 2002/2003, p. 70, fig 14A, calligraphy Wang’s letters in elegant cursive scripts is the Shiqi tie. The originals
only were believed to have been in the collection of the Tang dynasty
emperor Taizong (r.627-649 CE). Whilst they do not survive, countless
later copies in the form of tracings or engraved rubbings were widely
circulated. The majority of the letters were written by Wang Xizhi to
Zhou Fu (292-365 CE). All were written towards the end of Wang
Xizhi’s life and sent to Sichuan where Zhou Fu was a prefect of Yizhou.

Interestingly, Gan Xuanwen, has actually translated the letter into a
pictorial version, showing an elderly man walking across a bridge
clutching a large walking staff, presumably fashioned from bamboo.
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