Bottle ID: 796

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BI RONGJIU, RUSTIC SCENE WITH GOLDFISH

Date: Circa 1900

Height: 66 mm

A glass snuff bottle, painted on the inside using ink and watercolors, of flattened rectangular form with a cylindrical neck and oval footrim, on one main side with a rustic scene with the broken trunk of a tree, a cicada resting on it, a bee in the air above, and two butterflies around flowers below, and on the reverse with three fan-tailed goldfish, one black, two red, and four smaller fish amidst water-weeds, inscribed in running script Fang Xinluo shanren biyi Rongjiu shi 仿新羅山人笔意荣九氏 (‘Following the brush-style of Xinluo shanren, Mr.Rongjiu’) with one illegible seal of the artist. 

Similar Examples:

None found

Provenance:

Hugh Moss, Hong Kong
Bonhams, Hong Kong, November 24, 2012, lot 185 
Paul Braga Collection

 

PUBLISHED:

Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent.  The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection of Snuff Bottles.  Part Two.  Non-imperial Influence over the Snuff Bottle Arts.  No. 21.5.478

Xinluo shanren was the sobriquet of the famous Yangzhou artist, Hua Yan (1682-1756). This is one of Bi Rongjiu’s (1895-1915) masterpieces and of a unique combination of subjects, neither of which are recorded elsewhere by him.  He was capable of extremely fine, artistic work, but much of his output consists of landscapes with brief inscriptions.

 

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