An Inside-Painted Chalcedony ‘Carp and Goldfish’ Snuff Bottle Ye Zhongsan, Second Month, 1909

Sydney L. Moss Ltd.
Kurt Blücher von Walhstatt (Graf).
Heflene Collection.

Moss, 1971b, no. 381.
Moss et al., 1996-2009, vol. 4, no. 532.

Bottle: There is a cross shaped crack on the reverse side worked into the design. Painting: Studio condition.
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This is one of the unquestionably old chalcedony bottles painted by Ye fairly regularly from 1904 onwards (see discussion under Sale 2, lot 52). One can be reasonably certain in this case, since there is a star crack in the bottle on the side without the inscription and Ye has incorporated it into the painting. There was a considerable opportunity for the inside-painted artists, realized only occasionally by the Ye family, of transforming damaged bottles back into perfect ones in this way. With a plain chalcedony, a star crack of this sort is a serious problem that would put off most collectors and would certainly have affected the general appeal of the work of art in its day, making it much cheaper to acquire than a perfect example. Even today, a cracked plain chalcedony would be worth a fraction of the price of a similar one in perfect condition. Such bottles could have been acquired cheaply in Ye’s day as well, of that we can be certain. By taking the bottle as the frame for a painting, however, the inside-painted artists can incorporate the damage into a new work of art, taking what was negative and making it positive.

Here the cracks, radiating out from the point of contact, are used as the radiating veins of an aquatic plant and, in one case, as the backbone of a fan-tailed goldfish. This process of transforming damage into something positive in art ideally suits the symbolism of reaping wealth, represented by the goldfish in a pond.

Ye painted many fish subjects inside semi-transparent chalcedony, responding to the impression given of fish swimming in muddy water, and they are always effective, if a little difficult to read in detail—but then, no one can see the finer details of fish swimming in a muddy river or pond, either. The subject of the fish in a pond seems to have been a particularly popular one in 1909 and constitutes the majority of his known works from that year.