Lot 1169
Treasury 7, no. 1690 (‘Reticulated Fenghuang’)
HK$125,000

Ivory; with a flat lip and flat foot; carved with extensive undercutting and reticulation leaving large areas of the relief design free standing on each of the main-side panels, one panel with a fenghuang standing on a perforated natural rock formation beside a flowering magnolia tree and peonies, with two smaller birds above, one in flight, the other perched in the branches of the tree, the other panel with a paradise flycatcher perched in the branches of a flowering prunus tree beside flowering chrysanthemums and another perforated natural rock formation with bamboo growing at its base, with one more smaller bird in flight above; the narrow sides each with double-unit leiwen (thunder pattern), a slightly different version of which is repeated around the neck; the shoulders each engraved with a formalized floral design; the foot inscribed in seal script, Qianlong nian zhi 乾隆年製 (Made in the Qianlong era)
Japan, 1854–1920
Height: 6.2 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.72/2.18 cm
Stopper: ivory and red pigment; turquoise finial; ivory collar; original

Provenance:
Fulford Collection (prior to 1960)
Sydney L. Moss Ltd (circa1962)
Cyril Green
Hugh M. Moss Ltd, London (circa1973)
Belfort Collection (1986)

Published:
Chinese Snuff Bottles no. 2, p. 20, Colour Plate J
Connaissance de la chasse, September 1978, p. 87
JICSBS, March 1979, front cover
Jutheau 1980, p. 127
L’Estampille, February 1979, pp. 44 and 45
JICSBS, June 1981, p. 30, fig. 4
Le Quotidièn de Paris, no. 786, 7 June 1982
Arts of Asia, September–October 1982, p. 150
Très précieuses tabatières chinoises, p. 16, no. 228
Snuff Bottle Review, March 1983, p. 13
Kleiner 1987, no. 215
Treasury 7, no. 1690

Exhibited:
L’Arcade Chaumet, Paris, June 1982
Sydney L. Moss Ltd, London, October 1987

This famous and oft-published bottle was correctly identified as Japanese some time ago. It is one of the few from the entire Japanese output that is extremely well hollowed in terms of both capacity and the smoothing of the interior. It is entirely convincing functionally and, although the mark is a little shakily drawn, it is one of the few where the formalization of the seal script is accurate and based closely on a genuine Chinese original, probably on a porcelain bottle.

Hints as to its Japanese origin are found in the strange engraved design at the shoulders and in the fact that on a Chinese bottle the leiwen pattern would have been more likely to continue to the neck rather than end in a strange little roof-like peak with a delta in it. Nor is this the only odd feature of the leiwen. With authentic Chinese leiwen borders, when painted on porcelain, for instance, it is the positive, enamelled line that is intended to be read. When carved, there are two possibilities: it is either possible to read the carved line (the engraved trough, which looks darker here) or the white space left in relief and defined by the carved lines. It is more common for the relief to be read. Here the artist has put his double units in a rectangular frame with the intention of the engraved lines being read and not the relief, which makes them ambiguous. To grasp the difference, compare the narrow-side design with the neck band, where the relief is intended to be read as the double unit. These leiwen designs are often strangely distorted on Japanese snuff bottles.

Having nit-picked at the peripheral decorative borders, we find it a pleasure to turn our attention to the main panels, which are superbly carved with an unusual degree of depth of carving and undercutting, leaving a good deal of the relief plane free standing. This has all been very cleverly achieved so that the relief plane is relatively flat and, therefore, very practical for a snuff bottle, where high flying relief is likely to catch in clothing or be damaged in use. The artist has found a clever formula for combining deep relief and extremely intricate carving with a relatively flat surface plane. A number of more obviously Japanese bottles employ a similar device, although without the reticulation (see, for instance, Stevens 1976, nos. 775, 778, and 779).

The stopper here is actually typical of certain palace stoppers of the eighteenth century that can be taken apart. The usual method is to have the finial screwed into the collar to hold an otherwise loose cabochon between. It was a method used fairly frequently for stoppers with contrasting materials, such as a coral cabochon with a metal finial and collar. Here, however, the original ‘cork’ of ivory has a screw thread that goes through the collar and screws into the stained ivory cabochon. The turquoise finial is then loose and jams into the hole at the top. It is remarkable that it has survived despite not being attached. The Chinese method is undoubtedly more practical, since it fixes all three elements of the stopper firmly together.

This is not the Sotheby’s sale catalogue. This is a product of Hugh Moss for the purposes of this website. For the catalogue details please refer to Sotheby’s website or request a copy of a printed sale catalogue from Sotheby’s.