Lot 123

Lot 123
Treasury 7, no. 1586
HK$108,000

Myth and Mortal

Transparent golden-brown, and opaque, variegated yellow-ochre, brown, and blackish-brown amber (of the variety known as ‘root amber); well hollowed, with a flat lip and protruding concave foot; carved with a continuous rocky garden scene with a pine tree and flowering peonies in which, on one main side, Wang Xizhi reaches down towards two geese feeding from a shallow bowl placed on the lower of two flat, table-like planes of a natural rocky outcrop, and on the other with Liu Hai, standing on another rocky outcrop using a string of cash to entice his three-legged toad from turbulent waters below while a maiden immortal stands watching
The Amber Figure Master, 1760–1880
Height: 5.71 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.58/1.63 cm
Stopper: tourmaline; gilt-silver collar

Lot 123 Provenance:
Hugh Moss (HK), Ltd (1999)

Published:
Treasury 7, no. 1586

Lot 123 Commentary:
Amber was an extremely popular material among snuff-takers, and seems to have remained so from the early eighteenth century to the end of the dynasty. We know from the first years of the surviving palace workshops records in Beijing that amber was used to make snuff bottles as early as 1723, and must have been used in the preceding Kangxi reign as well (see under Treasury 7, no. 1576). There are many examples that can be reasonably dated to between the Qianlong and Daoguang reigns, and others that are obviously from later in the dynasty. Given the fragile nature of this soft and delicate material, which will invariably shatter if dropped on any relatively hard surface, and which chips and fractures very easily, we can extrapolate a considerably larger production from relatively plentiful surviving examples.

Like so many of our finer bottles from the earlier period of snuff-bottle manufacture, amber bottles were undoubtedly produced at the court, but were certainly produced elsewhere as well. Treasury 7, no. 1578 is an excellent example of a palace-workshops bottle, and many others, less easily identified as made at or for the court, would have been produced there, including a large number of plain bottles. Private production would have been concurrent, growing like private production in other materials, as the habit of snuff-taking spread from being a primarily northern habit centred at court in Beijing to one involving the rest of the population, a shift that took place from about the mid-Qianlong reign into the Daoguang.

Among the many distinctive groups of amber bottles in existence are a few where a particular carver, or at least workshop can be identified, and this exquisitely carved bottle represents one of them, and one of the most exciting. Because of the originating artist’s predominant use of popular mythological and historical figures, we have coined the name ‘The Amber Figure Master’ for his school. His workshop is, for amber carving, the equivalent of the Zhiting school at Suzhou for hardstone carving. Nor does the comparison end with the quality and complexity of the carving, there are other links. Many of his works, including this one, echo the serrated rock-work style of the Zhiting school and share a sculptural grace and flair in figure carving. With both schools, figures play a prominent role and are always evocative and impressive. In Chinese carving, so many figures are depicted simply as standard, stereotypes for different genders, historical individuals or deities, while the Zhiting school and the Amber Figure Master school, infuse far more individuality into their depictions, admirably exemplified here. Both also make full use of all the natural colouring in their respective materials, albeit in somewhat different ways. Whether this indicates a Suzhou origin for the amber workshop is another matter, but there can be no doubt that Suzhou was responsible for far more than the hardstone carving for which it was famous.

Wang Xizhi (321 - 379) the most influential of Chinese calligraphers who wrote the Lanting Preface of 353 (see Arts from the Scholar’s Studio, no. 17 for the artist and his association with geese, and ibid. no. 28 for the Lanting Preface) is depicted in an unusually animated pose, leaning forwards, reaching out to touch one of his favourite geese. By the time this bottle was produced certain standard images of Wang were well established, but The Amber Figure Master has risen above such visual clichés, other than his identifying association with geese, to produce a charming portrait of a sensitive aesthete feeding his beloved geese. Particularly dynamic here is the figure of Liu Hai, who balances, legs akimbo, on the upper reaches of a rocky promontory, his back towards us but his head turned to face us as he twists his shoulders, his arms also spread wide apart feeding the string of cash down across the rock-face to entice his toad from the water beneath. It is one of the most dynamic images of this popular deity known in the snuff-bottle world.

Where The Amber Figure Master differs from the Zhiting school is in his use of colour. Here he tends more towards the style of the Master of the Rocks (see under Treasury 1, no. 133). The Zhiting school tended to use any differences in a very precise manner, as a cameo, so that an area of darker colour would exactly match the outline of a figure’s robes, building, foliage, rock, or whatever. Even broader areas of colour fading into the ground colour would be similarly used as a rock face or broad ‘wash’ of colour. The Master of the Rocks and The Amber Figure Master use colour more subtly, alternating areas of precise, cameo relief work with broader ‘washes’ of colour. This use of colour may not be as immediately striking, but is every bit as exciting and rewarding. Areas of similar colour for, say, the relief torso of Wang Xizhi and his background are separated by the shadow thrown by the relief, and, on the opposite side of the torso, by a single line of brown used to accentuate the outline of his sleeve. This is a more artistic, less technique-driven use of colour, and better matches the abstract use of colour washes, ink-tones, and shading in the best of literati painting, where what may appear as almost careless, spontaneous, uninhibited application lifts artist and audience above the mundane aspects of the painting into the more spiritual, abstract realm of its inner languages.

For other masterpieces from this workshop, see Treasury 7, no. 1587, where the dating of this school is considered; a large bottle with a mantis and flowers is in Jutheau 1980, p. 134, fig. 1, and one more in Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 3, p. 8, bottom.