Bottle ID: 00373

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GAN XUANWEN, CRYSTAL W/FISHERMAN IN A SAMPAN & POETIC SCRIPT

Date: 1815-1823

Height: 60 mm

Crystal, ink and watercolors, of well-hollowed tapering rectangular form with raised rectangular panels on each side, painted on the inside with a fisherman in a sampan in a mountainous river landscape with a small country retreat in the distance, with two illegible seals of the artist; the reverse with a poetic inscription in clerical script preceded by one illegible seal of the artist and followed by the character tou and two further illegible seals.


The poem may be translated as:


'With only the sky above

And no more mountains this high,

I lift my head, the red sun so close

Look back, white clouds below me'.

 

Similar Examples:

Kleiner, Robert.  Chinese Snuff Bottles - The White Wings Collection, 1997, p. 242, no. 167.

Sotheby's, Hong Kong, October 28, 1993, lot 1279, Eric Young Collection, Part IV.

Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang.  A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 2000, Vol. 4, Part 1, p. 62, no. 453.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss Ltd.

Sotheby's, New York, March 23, 1998, lot 328

Frederick Von Schleinitz Collection

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Other than the work of Yiru Jushi, which may date from the beginning of the nineteenth century, the group of bottles painted by Gan Xuanwen are, with certainty, the earliest known inside painted bottles, the earliest dating from 1815 (in the Princeton University Museum) and the latest in 1823.  Gan Xuanwen did not come from Beijing but from the Lingnan (Guangdong) area in Southern China and is noted as an early nineteenth century literatus and painter in Guangdong shuhua la ('Written Record of Guangdong Calligraphers and Painters').  Possibly the only known painting by Gan is a handscroll in the collection of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  This being dated 1810, through the research of Peter Lam at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has helped establish Gan as one of, if not, the first painter of bottles, placing the cyclical dates on his bottles within the late Jiaqing/early Daoguang period.  It also suggests that Gan moved from traditional painting to this innovative medium and became a leader in this field.


Despite the lack of a legible signature and only a partial single character tou written in smaller script, it is evident that this bottle was painted by Gan Xuanwen.  Gan used a number of different art names but none that include the character tou, and it is unclear why this character is placed where the signature and date usually are.


The poem is well-known and entitled Yin Huashan (Song of Mount Hua) by Kou Jun (961-1023).  He was a high ranking official who served as Grand Councilor at the Court of Emperor Zhenzong and it was said that he composed this poem as a child in his seventh year.  Gan's calligraphy is of poor quality and visually utilitarian, which is understandable given that he went from painting scrolls to inside painted bottles where the calligraphy had to be written in 'reverse'.  However, he also missed out two characters of the inscription which seems odd given that he was a member of the literati and should have understood both the poem itself and its origins.

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