Lot 199
  • 199

A BLACK AND WHITE JADE 'LIU HAI AND TOAD' SNUFF BOTTLE SUZHOU, QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 HKD
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Description

  • jade

Provenance

Robert Hall, London, 1987.

Exhibited

Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles I, London Convention, London, 1987, cat. no. 54.
Robert Kleiner, Boda Yang, and Clarence F. Shangraw, Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 45.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-5.
Christopher Sin, Humphrey Hui, and Po Ming Kwong, ed., A Congregation of Snuff Bottle Connoisseurs: An Exhibition of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 138.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.

Literature

Arts of Asia, September-October 1990, front cover.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 129.

Condition

The overall condition is quite good, except for a tiny nibble to the inner mouthrim and a few typical nicks to the extremities, especially to the raised area on the left of Liu Hai. The actual tones are slightly less contrasting as suggested by the catalogue illustration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

This is another of the classic Suzhou carvings of the multiple-plane cameo group. They are among the most spectacular of all snuff bottles and represent some of the most imaginative and masterly use of natural areas of colour in the stone in the entire tradition of Chinese jade carving. Here the use of the four distinct planes of alternating pale and dark grey is quite skilful and under the extraordinary plastic control of the medium of a master jade-carver.

The cloud of vapour arising from the toad’s mouth is particularly impressive here, both technically with its multiple levels of relief and as a formal element, balancing the enormous gourd that the figure and the toad use as a boat. It also creates a halo for the Immortal, which perfectly balances the area of similar colour used for his head. The abstract force of the areas of paler colour offset against the dark ground and relief of the figure’s body, its hair, and the toad is impressive.

The immediate assumption when faced with a figure of this general appearance in association with a toad is that it is Liu Hai. In Treasury 1 we noted an alternative interpretation based on a story in Wang Shizhen 王世貞 (1526 – 1590), ed. Liexian quanzhuan 列仙全傳 (Comprehensive Biographies of All Immortals, 1600). Wang’s compilation inspired woodblock illustrations, and in Zheng Zhenduo 鄭振鐸, ed., Zhongguo gudai banhua congkan 中國古代版畫叢刊 (Collectanea of ancient Chinese woodblock illustrations), Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1988, vol. 3, juan 7, p. 252, we find the legend of a Mr. Hou as follows:

侯先生,不知何許人。宋大中間貨藥京師。年四十餘,無鬚眉,而瘤贅隱隱遍肌體。嘗醉,遇夜即與乞丐同處。有馬元者,夏月隨之出閶闔門。侯浴池中,元因就視,乃一大蝦蟆。元遽退引。侯浴出著衣。元前揖之, 侯笑曰,子適見我乎?乃召元飲酒肆中。出藥一粒曰,服之壽百歲。自此不復見。有自蜀中來者見其貨藥于市。

Mr. Hou. It is not known where he was from. He sold medicine in the capital during the Dazhong [xiangfu] era [1008–1016] of the Song dynasty. He was in his early forties yet had neither a beard nor eyebrows and his skin had faint warts all over. He was frequently drunk and spent the night with beggars. A Ma Yuan followed Mr. Hou in a summer month when he left through the city gate. When Hou was bathing in a pond, Ma Yuan drew close to watch: it was a big toad. Yuan withdrew in haste, but when Hou got out of the pond and put on his clothes, Ma came forward to greet him. Mr. Hou laughed and asked if Ma had seen him. He then invited Ma to a wine shop. He took out a pill and said that if he took it he would have a life span of a hundred years. From then on Mr. Hou disappeared from the capital. However, a traveller from Sichuan reported having seen him hawking his medicine in the market place there.

The woodblock shows only a toad, with clothing lying on the bank nearby, but the designer of this bottle chose to portray Mr. Hou in both of his forms, the toad breathing forth vapour from which Mr. Hou seems to emerge. Hou clutches a large sphere, presumably the pill containing the elixir of longevity he offered to Ma Yuan, although it is so large a pill that it might take a mere mortal a hundred years to pluck up the courage to swallow it.

Of course, it is always possible that this is in fact Liu Hai, who appears on several snuff bottles in these auctions with a toad exhaling vapours.

The reverse of the bottle is decorated with the serrated rockwork characteristic of the Suzhou school and a fruiting peach tree.

The carving on the foot of this bottle is extremely unusual in style for any known workshop. If a water vortex was intended originally—and such designs are a common enough feature of post-Song jade carving—then no foot rim would have been added. The rather stylised vortex was undoubtedly added to conceal a crack running around the bottom of the bottle and possibly a chip in the foot rim. This would suggest that the addition is later and was not part of the original design, in which case it is an ideal addition given the watery setting of the legend. What is intriguing, however, is that the crack, which is clearly visible, continues up both sides of the bottle to become natural fissures in the stone, which are cleverly concealed by elements of what can only have been original carving.

Clearly the fissures in the material existed before it was carved, and yet the foot carving is quite out of keeping with either Suzhou style or the taste of the rest of the work of art. Foot rims of any kind are an exception at Suzhou, and had a vortex been planned originally, it is certain that no foot rim would have been included in the design. Perhaps the bottle was dropped subsequent to carving, extending the natural fissures into a crack around the foot and chipping the foot rim, raising the need for further carving to conceal the now more-visible damage in the stone. This might have happened quite soon after it was made, or even in the original workshops. There is no way of telling with so imaginative and well executed a repair.