Lot 107
Treasury 7, no. 1710 (‘Longevity and Blessings‘)
HK$100,000
Wood, brass, gold and silver foil, abalone shell, and black and brownish-black lacquer (of the type known as lac-burgauté); with a flat lip and flat foot; decorated with an inlaid design of abalone shell and gold and silver foil on a black lacquer ground on each main side with a foliate panel, one containing a series of shou 壽 (longevity) characters, the other a series of fu 福 (‘happiness’ or ‘blessings’) characters, each in seal script with a variety of formalizations, the panels surrounded by a continuous formalized floral diaper design, the neck with a band of a different formalized floral diapers framed between two further formalized borders; the foot inscribed in abalone shell with the signature on a plain black-lacquer ground in seal script, Qianli (J. Senri) 千里; the lip brass
Japan, 1854–1900
Height: 5.53 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.65/1.47 cm
Stopper: wood, gold foil, abalone shell, brownish-black lacquer, and gilt brass, decorated with a formalized chrysanthemum flower design, the collar with a further formalized pattern and set on a thin, gilt-brass sub-collar; original
Provenance:
Unidentified dealer, Shanghai (1931)
Ko Collection (no. 957)
Christie’s, London, 10 June 1974, lot 185
Hugh M. Moss Ltd (1974)
Bob C. Stevens
Sotheby’s, Honolulu, 7 November 1981, lot 193
Eric Young
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 28 October 1993, lot 1091
Published:
Stevens 1976, no. 803 and front cover
Stevens 1978, no. 337
Zhao Ruzhen 1994, no. 161
Kleiner 1995, no. 356
Treasury 7, no. 1710
Exhibited:
Mikimoto Hall, Tokyo, October 1978
British Museum, London, June–October 1995
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July–November 1997
In China, lac-burgauté reached new heights in the seventeenth century with the works of the most famous of all lac-burgauté artists, Jiang Qianli 江千里 of Yangzhou. Because of his widespread fame his name became synonymous with the ware itself, which was almost certainly continued by his workshop after his death, perhaps into a second, possibly even a third generation, and in other workshops through to the end of the dynasty. It was also used in Japan in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The name became almost synonymous with the art form and continued to be used into the mid-twentieth century on a large number of snuff bottles made in Xinjiang 新降, south-western Shanxi province, in the 1960s. At the time, the name was seen simply as a designation of the ware; when marketed by the Beijing Arts and Crafts Corporation, the snuff bottles were sold as modern with no attempt to pretend they had anything to do with Jiang Qianli himself.
From the large and varied output bearing his name, it is possible to distinguish a small, core group of genuine pieces, mostly small serving trays or dishes for cups, but also a few other wares. We can then isolate a group of spectacularly fine wares, mostly decorated with formalized diaper designs, as being made in Japan. These include several small incense boxes and covers from the nineteenth century and a few snuff bottles made after 1854 and probably before about 1910.
This is one of the more spectacular Japanese versions bearing Jiang’s name. It is unusual because it combines a formalized diaper pattern with the panel of shou characters. We know from Sale 7, lot 158 that the signature of Jiang Qianli was known and used in Japan, although it is there strangely written with the characters running from left to right. The matching stoppers, set on slim metal under-collars, are also typical of later Japanese production.
One is given momentary pause by the fact that this bottle was bought in Shanghai in 1931. Nevertheless, Japanese wares were available in Shanghai at that time: the set of three vase-shaped bottles signed by Katon 茄燉in the J & J Collection were bought by Ambassador Li in Shanghai in 1945 (see Sale 2, lot 63). There are a few other Japanese bottles in the Ko Collection bought from the early 1920s to the 1940s, proving that such bottles were found in China in Beijing, Tianjin, and the international city of Shanghai. All of these cities were under Japanese military occupation at one time or another, of course.
Technically, the Japanese wares were as fine as Jiang Qianli’s genuine works, and usually more complex and detailed; these qualities are obvious in the present example, which is one of the Japanese masterpieces of the art form.
The decoration of shou and fu characters, wishing the recipient long life and blessings, was standard for Chinese decorative arts, but the number appearing here is strange. The foliate shape of the panels on each main side means that several of the characters, which are ranged in straight lines within the shaped panel, are partially obscured by the frame, but if each whole character and each fragment where one can see that it was intended as a part of another character are counted, there are seventy-five on each side. In China, such characters are a wish for future longevity and come usually either singly, denoting the concept in general, or in groups of one hundred, denoting a myriad or unlimited number. A group of sixty would represent a full cycle, but seventy-five is an odd number in more ways than one.
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.