Bottle ID: 300

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DARK BROWN, BRONZE IMITATION

Date: 1840-1880

Height: 62 mm

Stoneware, of bulbous ovoid form; the dark brown clay in imitation of bronze; molded and carved with a panel on one side depicting a kylin beside a tree and rockwork, a sword flying through the air; the reverse with raised calligraphy in draft script, translated as “One who always keeps company with men of lofty disposition, can identify with the heart of the detached and elegant sojourner”; the base stamped with a potter’s mark reading; “Signed Zhou Yuan”

Similar Examples:

None found

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
The Kenneth Hark Collection, Florida

One specific feature of Yixing wares is that they often have an inscribed or stamped potter’s signature or seal to help identify either the maker or more rarely the owner of the piece. In the case of teapots this has been the case since the Ming Dynasty where name were initially incised on the pot in regular script. This was later replaced by a potter’s imprint which included seals, stamps, dates and inscriptions. This has helped trace a timeline of potters, their wares and their geographical locations from the Ming period onwards. Unfortunately very few snuff bottles are marked with any known potter’s signatures or seals, making knowledge of the development of Yixing snuff bottles little more than guesswork. One of the exceptions to this is the bottle in the Crane Collection (no. 505) signed “Chen Mansheng”. In the case of the present bottle Zhou is likely to be the family name of the potter, though it appears to be unrecorded. In the seventeenth century, there was an orchid painter by the name of Zhou Yuan but it is extremely unlikely that this is one and the same person.

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