清十八 / 十九世紀 宜興紫砂堆料加彩山水樓閣圖鼻煙壺

Fu-Ming-Fair 收藏，弗羅倫斯，1969年
Margaret Prescott Wise 收藏（編號356）
Edgar and Roberta Wise 伉儷收藏，1995年
Robert Kleiner，倫敦，1996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1453

It is in overall good condition with just some minor wear and minute scratches to parts of the enamels, most noticeable to the blue pavilion roof tops.
"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."

Apart from the enamelling style, a good reason to attribute this to the same workshop as Sale 7, lot 176, is found in the identical dark-brown colour and texture of the bottle. It is also glazed inside with the same very thin, rather patchy white glaze. The enamels used in the decoration are also identical to Sale 7, lots 144 and 176, although here the design of pavilions in waterside landscapes seems to typify the subject matter of the Slip Master.

Another feature of this bottle is that it seems to represent an early style for this group of enamelled wares. It lacks the decorative clichés that tend to accompany commercial work where the same subjects have been painted over and over again for as long as the artist can recall. This represents the beginning of this workshop’s style, dating from the late Qianlong period.

For this support is found in two other vessels, obviously from the same early group, both excavated from tombs. One is a covered pouring vessel, the other a teapot; both have simple landscape scenes similar to this. (The pouring vessel is in Liang Baiquan 1991, no. 30, and the teapot is in Wenwu 1985, no.12, opposite p. 16, bottom. Both appear also in National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art, no. 182, May 1998, p. 18, plates 15 and 16.) The pouring vessel was excavated from a Qianlong tomb; therefore, although there is no more specific date given for the burial, the object must have been interred prior to 1796. The style is simple and decorative, and obviously a little cruder than here, but it is easy to see how with a little more practise the one could lead to the other. The pouring vessel bears a seal with the name of an unrecorded potter, Wang Lun, but since it is impressed in the clay of the vessel, it would seem to indicate the potter rather than the enameller if, as one assumes, they were different people. The teapot was excavated from a tomb in Shanxi province dateable to the fifth year of the Jiaqing reign (1801). It is likely that neither the pouring vessel nor the teapot was new at the time of burial, as such personal items as snuff bottles and teapots that found their way into tombs were usually old favourites intended for continued use in the afterlife. In any case, there is a distinct progression in refinement between the pouring vessel and the teapot, which seems a little later and is much closer in style to this bottle. If so, the three may represent refinement of the enamelling techniques of Yixing potters in the late Qianlong period, and probably of a single workshop.

Another bottle obviously enamelled by the same hand and depicting a similar scene is in the Walters Collection (formed in the 1870s and 1880s; Bushell 1980, p. 10, fig. 23). In very similar style, but bearing a date corresponding to 1782, is an inscribed snuff bottle from the Baishi Collection (Sotheby’s, New York, 22 November 1988, lot 13).

A standard method for making many vessels at Yixing, including some shapes of teapot, was to manipulate sheets of leather-hard clay, luting together segments to create the overall form and using various tools to shape and smooth the surface. With snuff bottles, however, it is apparent from a number of examples that they were made in the same way as at Jingdezhen, with two halves luted together vertically. That is what is seen in this example. Whether the two halves were pressed into a mould first is another matter, but they probably were, as suggested by the existence of multiple examples of certain distinctive shapes.