AN INSCRIBED 'DUAN' STONE SNUFF BOTTLE PENGHU KE, QING DYNASTY, LATE 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

adequately but not extensively hollowed, with a flat lip and a flat, ovoid foot, carved on one side with a crab clutching a clump of reeds and on the other with an inscription in cursive script zhonghuang laozi xi jianjia (‘This lord with yellow stuff inside plays with a blade of reed’) followed by the signature Penghu ke; the carnedlian agate stopper with a vinyl collar

Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1965.
Collection of Nellie Ionides.
The D.A. Ionides Will Trust.
Christie's London, 13th June 1990, lot 527.

Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 242.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-1995.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, The British Museum, London, 1995, cat. no. 287.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.

A. Steel and D. Thorpe, ‘Chinese Snuff Bottles’, The Antique Collectors’ Club, September 1967, vol. 2, no. 5.
Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch (illustrated folder), Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol .3, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 391.

The outer mouth rim has some minor nibbles and scratches, as well as a short and shallow hairline measuring only approx. 0.1 cm. The exterior of the bottle also has some minute nibbles and minor scratches to the surface, but almost all of the carving and incision has been unaffected. The bottle has a slight lean to one side. The flat foot rim has a short 2 mm section that has been polished down. The overall condition is very good. The actual colour is somewhat more brown, less red compared to the catalogue illustration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This is of the popular material mined at Duanzhou in Guangdong province and known as Duanstone or, because it was a favourite material for the making of ink palettes from the Tang dynasty onwards, as inkstone. It is possible that the design and inscription here were both carved by the unrecorded artist, Penghu Ke, a haoor assumed art name meaning ‘A Traveller in the Isles of the Immortals’. Penghu was another name for Penglai; it, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou were three mythical islands in the sea inhabited by the Undying.

The bottle has a slightly amateurish air to it in the shaping, hollowing, and detailing. An amateurish air was, of course, essential to the literati aesthetic, existing far above the level of the professional and often translated in literati arts into a deliberately unskilled appearance on the surface of the art. Also, what we read today as rather less-than-perfect formal integrity is probably more likely to be the result of minor damage having been repaired. The bottle leans slightly to one side, but if a small chip had been removed from one side of the foot, this could happen and, with a soft stone like this, would have been so easy to correct at conception that it is not credible as an original formal shortcoming. The irregularities at the neck may have occurred for a similar reason. Duanstone is easily worn and damaged, and many old bottles have wear and minor chipping to extremities. We may also assume that the relatively large numbers that have survived represent a much larger original output some of which has succumbed to damage. Referring to a crab as ‘an old gent with yellow inside’ is rare, but the crab and reed on one side and the inscription on the other clearly go together.