AN EMBELLISHED LAPIS LAZULI 'FIGURES' SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY, THE EMBELLISHMENT TSUDA FAMILY, KYOTO

Collection of Dorothea Esty, 1974.
Collection of Margaret Prescott Wise, no. 623.
Collection of Edgar and Roberta Wise, 1995.
Robert Kleiner, London, 1996. 

Christopher Sin, Humphrey Hui, and Po Ming Kwong, ed., A Congregation of Snuff Bottle Connoisseurs: An Exhibition of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 220.

Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 7, Hong Kong, 2009, no. 1705.

There are some typical nicks and chips to the inlays, including a nibble to the trousers of the leftmost man, as well as the left face of the central scholar and the rightmost table leg on the reverse. Please note that the piece missing from the table leg happened at some point after the photos were taken, the photo does not show the missing leg. There are also a small flake to the outer lip, in addition to some minor surface scratches and slight wear to the gold paint. The actual colours are less vivid than the catalogue illustration.
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This rare example on a lapis lazuli ground is from the earlier group of embellished wares by either Tsuda S­­­ōkan 津田宗貫 (1868 – 1834) or his son Tsuda Fukuya 津田復也 (spelling unconfirmed). The son learned his art from his father, probably from about 1920 until the father died in the 1930s; by then he would have been working closely alongside him for better than a decade, and his contribution to the finished products would have increased, making their styles indistinguishable.

One feature of the finest works, apart from their greater artistry and creative genius, is the use of a wider range of materials. Sometimes cinnabar-red lacquer, instead of being painted thinly onto the surface, is used for substantial sections and carved to shape. This would involve having thicknesses of cinnabar lacquer produced by an outside specialist, presumably, since this was a hazardous and tedious process involving somewhat unpleasant workshop conditions. These could then be carved into segments, in much the same way as soapstone was. In this case, red lacquer is used for the box set on the table.

Another unusual feature here, which also speaks of the flexibility and complexity of the finer earlier wares, is the depiction of a painting set in a screen. It is an imitation of a typical Chinese-style landscape, but on a gold-leaf background much favoured by followers of the Rimpa school of painting.

It seems likely that the two subjects here are made to be read together, since the youth walking away from the group on the side with the massive vase full of liquid of some sort, perhaps wine, only makes compositional sense if he is walking towards the figures on the other side. As a matter of fact, the adult with his hand on the screen seems to be expecting him, for his head is turned towards the narrow side around which the boy will come.

The commentary on this bottle in Treasury 7 identifies other published Tsuda bottles and attempts to categorise them to some extent. One correction should be added here: the reference to Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993 should have listed only one bottle, no. 302.