An inscribed Chalcedony 'Su Wu' snuff bottle, Suzhou, School of Zhiting, Qing Dynasty, 18th / 19th Century | 清十八 / 十九世紀 蘇作瑪瑙巧雕蘇武牧羊圖鼻煙壺

Heavenly Creations, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2005, cat. no. 246.

展覽：

《天地造化》，香港大學美術博物館，香港，2005年，編號246 

Humphrey Hui, An Addicted Dedication: Chinese Snuff bottles Christopher Sin's Collection, vol. I, Hong Kong, 2013, pl. 263.

出版：

許建勳，《An Addicted Dedication: Chinese Snuff bottles Christopher Sin's Collection》，卷一，香港，2013年，圖版263 

The present bottle is a masterpiece of Suzhou agate snuff bottles. Created by a highly imaginative and skilled carver, the abstract inclusions of variant tones of dark and lighter brown have been intricately incorporated into a lively exterior scene depicting Su Wu tending two sheep beneath a pine tree, the reverse with sheep, lingzhi and clouds. 

The inscription reads haishang fangyang shijiu nian, which translates as ‘tending sheep in Beihai for nineteen years'. Su Wu was an official of the Western Han dynasty, who was kept captive by the Xiongnu after leading a peace delegation there. The present bottle depicts his life there.

There is a broad range of Suzhou agate bottles, but one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Zhiting School bottles is the serrated style of rocks, which is clearly visible in the present lot. Zhiting is the name of a Suzhou artist, who signed his name to works at some time during the early to mid-eighteenth century. The school worked in jade, agate and crystal. For other examples, see two from the Mary and George Bloch Collection sold in our Hong Kong rooms, the first carved with a man picking lingzhi, sold 27th May 2013, lot 128, the second carved with a scholar and horse, sold 25th May 2014, lot 1094. See also another inscribed Suzhou agate snuff bottle sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th February 2021, lot 3050.