Bottle ID: 00039

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YE ZHONGSAN, HONEY AGATE W/CARP & ROCKWORK

Date: 1904. Bottle: 1750-1860

Height: 48 mm

Agate, ink and watercolors, very well-hollowed, of small rounded bulbous form, the honey colored stone painted inside with fan-tailed carp swimming amongst weeds, the darker brown inclusions in the stone used to depict a lively fish and rockwork; signed by Ye Zhongsan and dated 1904.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 405.
Kleiner, Robert.  Chinese Snuff Bottles - The White Wings Collection, 1997, p. 265, no. 184.
Hughes, Michael C.  The Blair Bequest - Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, 2002, p. 239, no. 335.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang.  A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Block Collection, 2000, Vol. 4, Part 1, pp. 256-257, no. 532.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

The use of older hardstone bottles by inside painted artists, and in particular by Ye Zhongsan, is well documented.  This is successful to varying degrees through the choice of the existing bottle, in part due to the extent of the hollowing, by allowing the painting to show clearly, and in the skillful use of the stone itself.  In this example, the artist has incorporated the darker abstract inclusions in the material as part of the design of fish swimming amongst rocks and waterweeds.  If it were not for the single painted dot emphasizing the eye of the fish, the inclusion could depict anything the collector saw in the stone, and yet, Ye leaves us in no doubt what he intended this abstraction to become.

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