Bottle ID: 00299

< Previous page

YAN YUTIAN, BIRD ON A TRUNK W/LANDSCAPE & A FISH

Date: circa 1900

Height: 60 mm

Glass, ink and watercolors, of rectangular form with sloping shoulders, painted inside in brown, black, white, and orange tones with on one side, a long-tailed bird perched on the trunk of a blossoming tree, beside rockwork and amidst chrysanthemum at the base of the tree; the reverse in tones of grey, black and brown with five fan-tailed fish with bulging eyes swimming amidst aquatic plants, inscribed 'Sketched at the Lotus Root Fragrance Studio in the Capital, Made by Zhou Leyuan', with one seal.

Attributed to Yan Yutian.

Similar Examples:

Hui, Humphrey K. F., Lai Suk Yee and Peter Y. K. Lam. Inkplay In Microcosm - Inside-painted Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Humphrey K. F. Hui Collection, 2002, no. 21.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. II, p. 672, no. 411.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 2002, Vol. 4, Part 1, pp. 148-149, no. 488.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
The Kenneth Hark Collection, FL.

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Fish, particularly in this style, were an unusual subject matter for Zhou Leyuan although the color tones are very much in keeping with his early work, and the quality of the painting is fairly high. Pairs of crested birds are less unusual (see the J & J Collection, no. 411) and were painted in different compositions by Zhou between 1884 and 1892. However, this raises the question whether this bottle was, in fact, painted by Zhou or merely signed with his signature. A comparison of his signature with a bottle undoubtedly by Zhou lends us to believe that the bottle was painted by another artist and signed with Zhou's name as a mark of respect. The most likely artist in this case is Yan Yutian who painted in this style with this palette. Yan Yutian was not a very good calligrapher and kept his signature, dates and dedications short on bottles signed by him. The example above is very much in line with this, as is the very average standard of calligraphy. To give a bottle a spurious signature was not unusual as Zhou Leyuan was as much revered by his contemporaries as his work is by collectors today.

< Back to full list