Bottle ID: 195

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MOLDED LIME GREEN, CRANE, WANG BINGRONG

Date: 1820-1860

Height: 71 mm

Porcelain, covered overall with a transparent lime-green glaze, of flattened pear shape, molded with a crane standing on the branches of an old pine tree, its legs and beak highlighted in black and the comb in pink, the pine branches continuing on the reverse, the base with a four character raised Wang Bingrong mark.

Attributed to Jingde Zhen.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 51
Crane Collection no. 912
Lawrence, Clare. Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom - The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1996, pp.202-203, no. 95.119.
Stevens, Bob C. The Collector’s Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, p. 97, no. 291.
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, October 30, 1990, lot 105, The Kaynes-Klitz Collection, Part II.
Sotheby's, New York, September 14, 2010, lot 127, The Joe Grimberg Collection.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Christie's, New York, October 18, 1993, lot 34
The Reif Collection

Wang Bingrong, Chen Guozhi and Li Yucheng are generally considered to the three masters of this genre in objects catering for the literati which included snuff bottles. While Chen Guozhi has been described in a recent publication as the 'showman', Li Yucheng as the 'artist', it was Wang who was described rather aptly as the 'businessman'. This is not to say that his work is not consistently good, but that his output was certainly prolific. It was not only Wang who produced this design with the crane on a pine tree (see Crane no. 912) but in the area of figural work Wang is seen at his finest, producing pieces like this snuff bottle which are traditional in style and highly detailed. It appeared that the smaller the item the more competent Wang was, whilst the reverse might be said for Chen Guozhi. In terms of technique Wang's work ranges from shallow to relief carving, from pierced work to piled work, from figural studies to landscapes. His style is traditional and akin to the bamboo carvers of the day even down to leaving the ground smooth and clean. Interestingly, most of his bigger pieces such as scholar's objects are glazed, but he often left his snuff bottles unglazed to show the finer detailing in his carving.

The example listed from the Bob Stevens Collection is especially interesting because it is almost an indentical mirror image of the Crane bottle.

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