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Bottle ID: 00147
WHITE W/RED OVERLAY, SEAL SCHOOL, BOYS & WATER JAR
Date: 1800-1850
Height: 57 mm
Glass, of flattened rounded form overlaid with red on a milk-white ground and carved with on one side a crested duck swimming with lotus pods, leaves and flowers, and a duck flying above, beside a four character inscription in seal script; the reverse with a boy beside a large water jar, with another boy hiding inside the jar, a stool and a leafy sprig to one side.
Attributed to Yangzhou.
Similar Examples:
Lawrence, Clare. Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom - The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1996, pp. 272-273, no. 130.147.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 2002, Vol. 5, Part 3, p. 753, no. 1036.
Sotheby's, New York, March 15, 1984, Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from The Mei Ling Collection, lot 43.
Sotheby's, New York, September 14, 2010, lot 107, The Joe Grimberg Collection.
Provenance:
Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Joseph Baruch Silver
Exhibited:
Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
The largest group of Yangzhou School overlay bottles, numerically, can be identified by its thin layer of single or multi-colored glass carved over a milk- white ground. Approximately one-third of these bottles have an inscription or seal such as "a gathering of heroes" or the name of a pavilion such as "Chiyuting" - the breath of rain pavilion - or simply a reference to the bottle itself such as "eight swift steeds" (a reference to the eight horses of Mu Wang). In addition, just over 10% of these bottles bear a cyclical date; sometimes alone, sometimes accompanying an artist's seal or inscription.
The quality of this whole group is tremendously variable, from the poorest and meanest carving to the most elevated standard of decoration. As part of a commercial enterprise this is understandable and today bottles must be judged as any work of art with a combination of its technical finesse and artistic endeavor. The Crane bottle is a tour-de force of design with two separate pictorial elements on each face of the bottle. On one side the lotus pods, leaves and flowers curl and bend around each other hiding the duck looking up toward its mate who appears to be flying with one eye on the inscription to the side. The other side is a rare scene, for Yangzhou School bottles, of two boys playing in and around a massive jar, with the scene being framed by a leafy sprig up one side of the bottle.