清十九世紀初 傳甘烜文作水晶內畫西洋仕女圖鼻煙壺

紐約佳士得1990年11月29日，編號117

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292
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4，香港，2000年，編號462

One part of the edge of the lip polished flat to remove a chip, bruise to the foot with small attendant chip, similar slight bruise and chip at the base of one foot panel.
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There are four known portraits either by or attributable to Gan Xuanwen. This one is sensibly attributable to Gan, although not without any shadow of doubt, based on similarities in style and brushwork to a portrait of a European sailor that is painted on a bottle with an unquestionable Gan Xuanwen landscape. Were it not for this link, one might be more puzzled by this bottle. The signature is not known to have been used elsewhere by Gan, but Jiren is a common name and courtesy name and could belong to whoever authored the inscription.

Other reasons to attribute these two portraits to Gan are the shape of the crystal bottle, the clerical-script calligraphy, and the encomium on snuff, all of which are typical of Gan. He was obviously a keen snuff-taker and connoisseur, and presumably a collector of snuff bottles as well as a painter of them, since most wealthy literati who snuffed also collected a number of bottles, often received as gifts. Many of his inscriptions (whether he composed them himself or not) refer to the snuff bottles and the snuff in which he clearly took such delight. This one is no exception:

玉壺霏霏貯黃雪，慧根即從妙香心。

The jade bottle contains a blizzard of brown snow;
Wisdom will come with its wondrous fragrant heart.

‘Jade’ here functions as a stock epithet indicating a precious bottle made of fine material. The yellow-brown snow is, of course, snuff. The Buddhist term for ‘wisdom’ used in the second line refers to the fifth of the five faculties that form the roots of enlightenment (the others are belief, persistence, mindfulness, and concentration). ‘Wondrous fragrant heart’ is a bit more difficult to pin down, but here the idea might be that wisdom will arise in the heart-mind (xin 心) that has become fragrant because of the snuff.