AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE YIRU JUSHI, AUTUMN, 1807

with a flat lip and a flat foot, carved on each side with flowering lotus plants contained in an approximately circular recessed panel, painted on one side with an orchid, chrysanthemums and bamboo growing from a rocky bank, inscribed in regular script wangzhe zhi xiang (‘Fragrancy for a king’) and fang Shitian (‘In imitation of Shitian’) followed by the signature Banshan; the other main side inscribed with a poem followed by dingmao qiuri bing lu (‘Recorded on an autumn day in the year dingmao,’ corresponding to 1807), followed by the Manchu signature, Yun Jeng; the jadeite stopper with a vinyl collar; the bottle 18th / early 19th century.

Trojan Collection.
Robert Hall, London, 1993.

Chinese Snuff Bottles V: From the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Trojan, Robert Hall, London, 1992, cat. no. 84.
Christie's London, 1999.

Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 4, Hong Kong, 2000, no. 440.

There are a few icy flaws in the material in places and minute nicks to the inner lip but generally the snuff bottle is in very good condition. The interior is extensively snuff-stained, but other than this, the painting remains in remarkably good condition. The actual colour is less reddish, more brown compared to the catalogue photo.
"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."

This is one of the most successful works where Yiru jushi has taken an existing decorated snuff bottle and painted it. He has resisted the temptation to follow the outside decoration, as later artists might have done, but he has managed, nonetheless, to integrate the exterior carving with the interior decoration, and the result is intriguing. On one side this consists of no more than placing the characters between the relief carving so they can be read easily (for the most part), but on the other, the lotus pond occupies the carved foreground while the painting of the bank of the lotus pond on which the bamboo, chrysanthemums, and orchids grow along a rocky shoreline, forms the background.

The works of Yiru jushi suffer from the same problem as many other earlier painted bottles in that the years of contact with snuff has darkened the paintings and the surfaces on which they were executed. This one is particularly dark, but this is mainly due to accretions of snuff. The painting itself, partly because it was all in black ink to begin with, which is one of the more tenacious colours, has not suffered at all and most of the characters are still clearly visible.

The phrase ‘fragrancy for a king’ originates from words put into Confucius’s mouth in a little-known Han dynasty work on qin music: seeing the lan (a thoroughwort, a plant traditionally used in cosmetics and to ward off insects) flourishing in a hidden valley, Confucius exclaimed that ‘lan should be fragrant for a king, yet here it is flourishing by itself, a cohort of the common grasses’. Recognizing an analogue to his own situation (virtuous but obscure), he could not help pausing in his journey to take out his qin and play it. Later, when lan came to refer to the orchid, Confucius’s words migrated with the term and became a periphrastic phrase for ‘orchid’, as is obviously the case here.

Shitian was the sobriquet of the Ming artist Shen Zhou.

The poem on the other main side is the second half of a poem on lotus blossoms by a prominent Ming official Shen Shixing (1535-1614):

Swimming and playing, golden scales appear;
Flying and soaring, kingfisher wings pass over.
To take in the cool, we linger by the waterside terrace,
And make continuations of the old lotus-picking songs.