AN INSIDE-INSCRIBED GLASS 'PINE AND MOON' SNUFF BOTTLE WANG JUNLIN, 1904

Collection of Arthur Gadsby, 1980.
Belfort Collection, 1986.

Chinese Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 50.
Très précieuses tabatières chinoises: Collection rassemblée par Maître Viviane Jutheau, L'Arcade Chaumet, Paris, 1982.
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1987, cat. no. 137.
Kleine Schätze aus China. Snuff bottles—Sammlung von Mary und George Bloch erstmals in Österreich, Creditanstalt, Vienna, 1993.

Arthur Gadsby, 'Peking Glass Part II', Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, March 1979, p. 19, fig. 23.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 5, Hong Kong, 2002, no. 1060.

The original stopper illustrated in book has been replaced by a glass stopper with a silver collar. Good condition.
"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."

It is refreshing to experience such confidence in attributing a glass bottle to Boshan. The form, detailing and quality of the glass here all correspond perfectly to the large series of glass bottles made at Boshan between the 1890s and the 1920s and used by inside-painting artists. On its last outing this example was catalogued as an earlier bottle, but it must have been made at approximately the same time as the decoration – probably shortly before 1904 – which can be assumed is the correct interpretation of the cyclical date.

This extraordinary bottle has been inside-engraved using a diamond point, a feature that is certainly very rare, if not unique to this bottle. It is interesting that once the technique had been developed, it was not employed more often. Securing a diamond point to a tool that could be inserted through the neck into the bottle would not have presented great problems, and the technique of working on the inside of a bottle with bamboo pens was both well known and extremely popular at about this time. However, the difficulty of exerting sufficient pressure to achieve inside-engraving is reflected in the mediocre results achieved here. Such obstacles did not exist, of course, when painting the inside of a bottle, since only minimal pressure was required.

Wang Junlin is recorded nowhere else, but from this single work it would appear either that he was a rather pedestrian artist, or he found the challenge of working on the inside of a bottle with a diamond-point overwhelming.

Nantian is the painter Yun Shouping 惲壽平 (1633 – 1690).

‘Like an old dragon lifting up a night-shining pearl’ is a simile often used in duilian 對聯 (‘couplets’). An oft-repeated story has two men out for a stroll in the evening. One of them responds to the scene with Xiao zhao chen xing, si xianren saxia jin qizi 小沼沉星，似仙人撒下金棋子 (‘A small pond in which the stars are sunken: like an immortal sweeping away golden go pieces’); his companion takes up the challenge and answers with Gusong gua yue, ru laolong qingchu yemingzhu 古松掛月，如老龍擎出夜明珠 (‘An old pine in which the moon hangs: like an old dragon holding up a night-shining pearl’). By matching the first line with a second line that is grammatically parallel and exhibits the proper meter (as defined by the tones of the syllables), the second man has shown his quick wit and erudition.