Page 13 - Bonhams Art from the Scholar's Studio, September 16, 2013 NY

8005 (two views)

8005 Illustrated:
An inside painted glass snuff bottle The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Journal, September,
Ding Erzhong, dated 1906 1979, cover.
Of upright rectangular form with sloping shoulders, a tapering neck and
resting on a rounded splayed foot rim surrounding a convex foot, one Ding Erzhong is the sobriquet of Ding Shangyu, a Qing dynasty scholar
face of the interior of the bottle painted with turnips, cabbage, lingzhi, a official from Tongzhou in Jiangsu province, who was also a calligrapher,
taihu stone and prunus blossom, with a long inscription by the artist, dated seal carver, painter and master of inside-painted snuff bottles. In addition
Guangxu bingwu (1906) on the Buddha’s birthday, the artist citing Chen to finding inspiration from Song, Ming and Qing paintings, Ding Erzhong
Chun (1483-1544) as his inspiration, signed Ding Erzhong at the Mountain would also rely on the roots of early Chinese calligraphy to adorn
Cottage of Seventeen Plum Trees, followed by a painted seal of the artist, his bottles. This bottle notes several influences in both painting and
the other side of interior of the bottle with two calligraphic passages, one calligraphy, with a Ming artist the inspiration for the front composition
imitating an ink rubbing, the other in clerical script of a portion of the and the Song dynasty paintings for the pine on the reverse. In the fashion
Eastern Han dynasty Chen Taiqiu stele, both calligraphic vignettes above an of the waning years of the Qing dynasty, ancient calligraphic aesthetics
ink pine inscribed with an inscription that states the painting was done in are also present, a product of the epigraphy movement of the 18th and
the Song dynasty style, signed Zhong, with one painted seal. 19th centuries. Two similar bottles by Ding Erzhong dated 1904 that also
2 3/8in (6.1cm) high show the pine, calligraphy and rubbing are illustrated in Bob Steven’s The
$10,000 - 15,000 Collector’s Book of Snuff Bottles nos. 883, 884.

Provenance:
Mr. Ma, Hong Kong, 1955

Chinese Art From The Scholar’s Studio | 11