Lot 78

Lot 78
Treasury 2, no. 375

Zhiting’s Dream of Emolument

Dendritic chalcedony; adequately but not extensively hollowed, with a concave foot surrounded by a slightly irregular flat footrim; carved with a continuous, partially cameo scene of a youth leading a deer through a rocky landscape with a pine tree, some other foliage growing from a rock face and a convoluted rock, inscribed in relief draft script ‘Picture of acquiring rank and emolument’
Suzhou, School of Zhiting, 1730–1850
Height: 4.79 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.48/1.56 cm
Stopper: jadeite; vinyl collar

Lot 78 Provenance:
Michael Blackett (circa 1964–1968)
Hugh Moss
Blair Hills
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (1985)

Published:
Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 2, front cover and p. 14
Moss 1971, p. 67, fig. 176
Snuff Bottle Review, May and June 1975, p. 6
Kleiner 1987, no. 147
Arts of Asia, September–October 1990, p. 94
Kleine Schätze aus China 1993, p. 7
Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, no.229
Kleiner 1995, no. 270
Treasury 2, no. 375

Exhibited:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
Galeries Lafayette, Paris, April 1990
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May–June 1993
Hong Kong Museum of Art, March–June 1994
National Museum, Singapore, November 1994–February 1995
British Museum, London, June–October 1995
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July–November 1997
Christie’s, London, 1999

Lot 78 Commentary
The inscription on this famous little masterpiece of the school suggests that it might be from the hand of Zhiting himself, although with only three characters to judge from, it is possible that it is another master from the same workshop following Zhiting’s style. It must also be borne in mind that while Zhiting might write the characters in ink on the surface, it would be possible for a very skilled but completely illiterate craftsman to carve away the surrounding ground to express his style perfectly. However, the component parts of the subject, style, and quality all confirm its membership in the finest group from the Zhiting School.

It has the serried ranks of folded rockwork across the back of the bottle, although not serrated here, despite the impression that they might be. The serrated style is achieved with serial lines cut with a series of indentations, just like a serrated knife-edge, whereas here a somewhat similar effect is achieved by setting a series of shallow planes, each with a diagonal angle at its lower edge, together in close ranks. A convoluted rock is carved from a dark area on one narrow side, and the rest of the rocks on the front main side are of the planar variety, with vertical sides to give the effect of a rocky bank, its upper, flat surface tilted towards the viewer to give a sense of depth and incised with, in this case, unusually long horizontal lines to indicate grass or ground texture. The pine tree is another of the masterpieces of the medium, albeit from a school where pines are seldom less than masterly, and is characteristically bowed to frame the main subject. The hair of the youth is taken from an ideal piece of dendritic chalcedony. The deer is typical of the school of Zhiting, three-dimensional, superbly realized, very realistic in pose and rounding of the body, and with a very well detailed, sharp-pointed face.

The deeper relief incorporating very crisp, totally confident planar carving of some of the rocks, is characteristic of one group from this school, epitomised by the J & J masterpiece in multi-coloured agate (Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, no. 140 and the front cover of Moss 1971) and represented in all its glory by Treasury 2, nos. 373, 374 and 376. It is interesting to note that most of this group are relatively smaller than the lower relief style, although in so many examples both styles can be seen to some extent. They may represent a stylistic maturity, where growing confidence led to more pronounced, emphatic works or they may simply be a response to certain materials and a day-to-day choice. Their size may even be a factor in the style, in that with a smaller bottle one can afford to have more high-flying relief without resulting in an unduly heavy product.

The hollowing here is typical, leaving thick walls, particularly at the narrow sides, but adequate and well achieved; the lip is the exceptional flat variety, and the less usual concave foot is surrounded by a flat rim, with incisions that form the detailing around the base carrying on into it, making it a trifle uneven.

The subject is, as ever, both symbolic and auspicious. The deer (lu) serves as a homonym to evoke another word (lu) meaning the emolument received by government officials. Hence, compositions that depict a horseman either chasing or capturing a deer, or, as in this case, a man leading one, always embody a desire to attain a prominent position in an official career, one that would inevitably bring substantial wealth and honour to an individual and his family.