清十九世紀 青花礬紅彩題詩梅瓶式鼻煙壺 《乾隆丙寅小春御題》仿款

Robert Kleiner，倫敦，1992年

Robert Kleiner、楊伯達及 Clarence F. Shangraw，《盈寸纖研 ─ 瑪麗及佐治伯樂鼻煙壺珍藏》，香港藝術館，香港，1994年，編號167
新加坡國家博物館，新加坡，1994-1995年

Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷6，香港，2007年，編號1397

Tiny nibbles to the footrim. Slight fading to the red Qianlong tea-poem, vertically down one column of characters.
"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."

As Kleiner pointed out, this well-known poem was composed by the Qianlong emperor in 1746 on the subject of tea and appeared thereafter on a series of porcelain wares, often those relating to tea-drinking, such as bowls and small dishes for holding tea cups, and even in other materials.

There is an underglaze-blue snuff bottle of similar shape, also with the poem, in the O’Dell Collection (Ford 1982, no. 170). That bottle and this are difficult to date accurately—neither the shape nor the decorative borders are standard—but judging from the quality of the blue and the nature of the paste and glaze, a mid-nineteenth century date seems the most likely. There is even one version of this design known that is marked with the rare designation Guanyao yazhi 官窯雅製 (‘Elegantly made at the governmental kilns’; Au Hang 1993, no. 269) suggesting it may have been made in the late nineteenth century, since during the Taiping uprising and on occasions thereafter such alternative designations replaced the more specific ones of earlier times.

If the blue-and-white versions and this one were made at the same time, this may date from the second half of the nineteenth century, although a little leeway has been left. Another indication that this is a later version of an old subject is that the seals are anonymous seals, whereas on those made in the Qianlong era the seals are those of the emperor. A late-Qing potter might use the old design and substitute less-specific seals.

The shoulder and base bands are unusual in having the formalised lingzhi reserved on a blue ground, and the inversion of the standard orientation of the ruyi design at the shoulders is particularly unusual. As a rule, when this design appears as a shoulder band, the points of the formalised fungi point downwards, whereas here they point upwards on both bands. The design for the snuff bottles obviously comes either from a tea-bowl design or from whatever served as the source of the tea-bowl design.

The poem reads

梅花色不妖，佛手香且潔。松實味芳腴，三品殊清絕。烹以折腳鐺，沃之承筐雪。火候辨魚蟹，鼎煙迭生滅。越甌潑仙乳，氈廬適禪悅。五蘊淨大半，可悟不可說。馥馥兜羅遞，活活雲漿澈。偓佺遺可餐，林逋賞時別。懶舉趙州案，頗笑玉川譎。寒宵聽行漏，古月看懸玦。軟飽趁幾餘，敲吟興無竭。

The colour of prunus is not wantonly bewitching;

The Buddha’s hand citron is fragrant and clean.

Pine nuts were never heavy with fragrance;

All three are unique for their purity.

I boil them in a tea-warmer with short curved legs;

Infusing them with snow gathered in a bamboo basket.

Tending the fire, I distinguish fish- and crab-eye bubbles;

The steam now rising, now dissipating from the pot.

Into a Yue ware bowl I pour milk of the immortals;

In a felt tent I feel the joys of meditation.

The Five Skandas are purified and all is at peace;

This experience can only be felt; it cannot be described.

Rich with fragrance, the white floss is passed around,

The bubbly nectar-like fluid becomes clear.

What the immortal Woquan left behind, we mortals can feed on.

What the poet Lin Bu once admired was from a different time.

Too lazy to lift the Zhaozhou case;

I cannot help laughing at Yuchuan’s artfulness.

In this chilly night I listen to the sound of the clepsydra;

At the ancient moon I gaze: a half-round pendant.

Feeling relaxed and full, I take advantage of this leisure moment,

To chant a few verses to my heart’s content.

The first few lines of the poem propose prunus, Buddha's hand, and pine nuts as comparable to tea in light, clean, and subtle qualities. Any tea aficionado will know that when bubbles the size of crab eyes start rising from the bottom of the pot, the water is perfect for infusing tea; if one waits for a full boil, it is too late. Milk for the Undying could refer to spring water or frothy tea (of the sort prized in the Song dynasty and best known today in the Japanese powdered green tea used for the tea ceremony, matcha 抹茶). The felt tent symbolizes life on the northern grasslands (just as ware from Yue represents the south), but it is likely that the emperor actually drank tea in a felt tent while keeping alive the Manchu traditions of the hunt. The Five Skandas, or Accumulations, are the five aspects of one’s being that take shape in the course of interactions between consciousness and its objects: matter (as constituted by the senses); sensations, thought and its objects, deeds, and the discriminations made by consciousness. Because the introduction of tea into Chinese culture is so closely associated with the monastic life, it is natural that the Qianlong emperor should express his tea-drinking pleasures in Buddhist vocabulary. Woquan is the name of an immortal of hoary antiquity who gathered herbs in the mountains; the pine nuts he was fond of eating conferred long life on those to whom he gave them. Lin Bu (967 – 1028) was a poet of the Northern Song period particularly noted for his reclusive life on Solitary Hill in scenic West Lake in Hangzhou, preferring to take his beloved prunus blossom as his wife and a crane for a son. Reference to the ‘Zhaozhou case’ is probably an allusion to a Chan (Zen) teacher in the Zhaozhou lineage of Linji Buddhism who asked a pupil, ‘Did you come here?’ to which the response was, ‘Yes’, at which the teacher ordered, ‘go drink tea!’ The next time he asked the monk, ‘Did you come here?’ the monk tried the opposite response: ‘No’. To this, the teacher gave the same answer: ‘Go drink tea!’ This is the kind of illogical response to questions that is typical in 'cases' (gong'an 公案in Chinese, kōan in Japanese) used in Chan training. Yuchuan is short for Yuchuanzi, the sobriquet of Lu Tong 盧仝 (ca. 775–835), a Tang dynasty poet who wrote a poem in which he speaks of inspecting three hundred round bricks of compressed tea (loose-leaf tea only later becoming the norm); Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101) later wrote a poem in which he speaks of 'laughing at’ a hungry Yuchuanzi' toying with his three hundred round ‘moons’ of tea; the emperor is clearly alluding to Su’s merriment. The suspended jade ornament hanging in the sky is a semi-circular one.