A CHALCEDONY CAMEO 'PICKING LINGZHI' SNUFF BOTTLE SUZHOU, SCHOOL OF ZHITING, QING DYNASTY, EARLY 18TH / MID-19TH CENTURY

adequately but not extensively hollowed with a flat, slightly irregular foot, carved with a continuous, partially cameo scene of a clean-shaven man in a straw hat walking with his hoe over his right shoulder in a rocky landscape with a large convoluted rock, a pine tree and a clump of lingzhi growing in a grotto, inscribed in cameo relief draft script cai zhi tu ('painting of picking lingzhi'), a band of vapour emerging from the base of the convoluted rock to run low across one main side, up the side of the other rock, and around the shoulders of the bottle to become a cloud-scroll frame; the glass stopper with a turquoise collar

Cai Shi Xuan (Stone Picking Studio) Collection.
Sotheby’s London, 21st June 1995, lot 54.

Wang Ning, 'Saleroom News: Sotheby's London, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of the Stone Picking Studio (Cai Shi Xuan) on Wednesday 21st June, 1995', Arts of Asia, November-December 1995, p. 121.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 374.

There is a minute nick to the outer lip, otherwise the snuff bottle is in very good condition. The actual colour is somewhat more borwn, less yellow compared to the catalogue illustration. There is a small chip to the collar of the stopper as visible on 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."

The genius of artists associated with the Zhiting school to transform the negative into the positive, is illustrated here by the use of a pale white fissure in the stone. Unused, it would have resembled a bruise, but it has been turned into the head of a magnificent lingzhiwhich, once gathered, will provide the fungus hunter with great wealth. By this sweep of the imagination, a flaw becomes magically positive. The continuation of the flaw, a smaller area to one side, is similarly carved as the entire head of a smaller fungus.

This unusually small bottle, even for a school that was no stranger to smaller sizes, features, paradoxically, one of the most monumental and magnificent convoluted rocks in the entire snuff-bottle arts. It runs up both narrow sides, with deeply carved three-dimensionality, around the base and under the foot, so that the view on each side is seen through the flanking stones. One side, the one with the inscription superimposed upon it, is also a triple cameo with the dark colour of the inscription superimposed on a pale grey rock, which is in turn the top of a darker brown rock set on the brownish-grey ground. The strange, formalized vapour, a magical emanation linked to and symbolising the otherworldly nature of the fungus, emerges from the equally magical rock, which would have been considered by any passing Chinese aesthete as a natural masterpiece far more impressive than any of the monumental religious sculptures he may also have encountered during his lifetime. It helps give the scene its mystical setting, alive with the promise of arcane secrets.

There is a very unusual aspect of school style here in the characteristically well-carved pine tree that grows from the top of the convoluted rock with the inscription. The entire tree, trunk, and foliage are carved in cameo from darker material, whereas, as a rule, trunk and branches are usually in the ground colour and only foliage, albeit not always all the foliage, in a darker tone.

Although with an atypical flat lip, the hollowing here is also typical for the school. An unusual feature is the fact that, although the colour runs beneath the foot, there is no carving there, presumably because with this school, where every single work of art is re-invented afresh without any repetition of compositions, it was felt that since the rock continued all around the foot, the whole foot would have to be carved as deeply pierced rockwork.