AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE YE FAMILY, MID-FEBRUARY, 1928

with a concave lip and a recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding flattened footrim, painted on one main side with a landscape after the style of Zhou Leyuan, with a foreground grassy mound with two pines and two other trees in front of an open thatched pavilion on a rocky promontory towards which a scholar strolls, holding a staff, all overlooking an expanse of water fed by a waterfall that tumbles from a stream meandering out of the distant hills, which are shrouded in mist, with hilltops and distant peaks beyond, the other main side with a natural rock sculpture and a sprig of blossoming prunus, inscribed in draft script, ‘Executed with an untrammelled brush: a curious stone and a strange [missing noun], in the year wuchen [corresponding to 1928], four days before “Rain Water”, for the pure appreciation of Borong, a senior acquaintance,’ with the signature Pingbo an zuo (Made by Pingbo an), and one seal of the artist, yin, in negative seal script; the jadeite stopper with a vinyl collar; the bottle mid-18th / 19th century

Collection of William Bruce.
Robert Kleiner, London, 1990.

A Catalogue of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Robert Kleiner & Company, London, 1990, cat. no. 78. 
Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 364.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-1995.
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. 651.

There are very minute nicks to the inner lip of the bottle, otherwise it is in good condition. The painting is in good condition. The actual colour is consistent with the catalogue illustration.
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We believe Ping Bo'an was probably a patron of the Ye family who asked to have his name added as the maker of the bottle. One other bottle bearing his name is illustrated in Hugh Moss, 'The Apricot Grove Studio, Part II: The Artists - 1912-1929', Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Spring 1984, p. 72, figs. 209a and 209b, and is dated to 1929 and also inscribed in the typical calligraphc style of the Ye family. Whilst the present inscription reads 'executed by Ping Bo'an', the 1929 bottle reads 'presented by Ping Bo'an'.

This bottle is extremely well painted in the style of Zhou Leyuan, and might be a later work by Ye Zhongsan or his elder brother Ye Xiaofeng.