Page 30 - The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part I

(two views)

Ψ 227
A RED-OVERLAY MILKY-WHITE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
YANGZHOU SCHOOL, 1840-1890

The bottle is carved through the red overlay to the transparent white glass ground with Damo
holding his hat on the end of a staff, next to a small seal reading Xiaomei. The other side is
decorated with a medallion formed by an archaistic palindrome associated with Damo. Each
narrow side has a delicate mask and ring handle.
2¿ in. (5.3 cm.) high, jadeite stopper

$4,000-6,000

PROVENANCE:

Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 2028.

EXHIBITED:

Boston, International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, The Barron Collection,
23-26 September 2008.

LITERATURE:

Symposium on Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Carl F. Barron, Presented at the Annual
Convention of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Association, Boston, privately printed, 2008,
p. 10.
H. Moss and S. Sargent, “The World in a Bottle in the World at the End of the Qing Empire:
Part 2, Yangzhou Overlay Glass,” Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Spring
2011, p. 23, fg. 32 (upper right).

(another view) Xiaomei was the courtesy name of Wang Su (1794-1877). His name appears on a number of
Yangzhou-school snuff bottles, a few of which bear dates. For a discussion of the artist, and updated
28 information on the Yangzhou school, see H. Moss and S. Sargent, “The World in a Bottle in the World
at the End of the Qing Empire: Part 2, Yangzhou Overlay Glass,” Journal of the International Chinese
Snuff Bottle Society, Spring 2011, pp. 22-29. The authors also note and illustrate bottles on which the
inscription reads “made for Xiaomei” and conclude that he was most likely a patron for this group.
For a bottle with such an inscription, Xiaomei and wan (together meaning ‘A Plaything for Xiaomei’)
see Moss, Grahm, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection,
Hong Kong, 2002, Volume 5, Part 3, pp. 776-778, no. 1046.

1840-1890年 揚州作涅白地套紅玻璃「一葦過江」圖回文鼻煙壺