AN INSIDE-PAINTED BEIGE CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE YE FAMILY, SUMMER, 1927

with a slightly concave lip and a concave foot, painted on one main side with a young woman in a red gown talking with a young man in a garden setting, the other main side with two women in a study, one seated at a desk with an inkstone on it, applying a brush to a sheet of paper, while the other stands in front of the desk and looks on, a garden visible through two large square windows behind them, inscribed in draft script, ‘Executed by Ye Zhongsan in a summer month of the year dingmao’, corresopnding to 1927, with one seal of the artist, yin, in negative seal script; the coral stopper with a gilt-bronze collar; the bottle mid-18th / mid-19th century

Robert Kleiner, London, 1992.

Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 333.
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. 650.

There is a tiny chip to the outer lip of the bottle which has been partly polished but otherwise the snuff bottle is in good condition. The painting is in good condition.
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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."

The figures depicted here are almost certainly from Honglou meng 'Dream of Red Mansions', also called Shitou ji 'The Story of the Stone'. The young man in green in the garden scene is the main character in the novel, Jia Baoyu. He may be talking to the maid Xiren. On the other side, the two women are probably Baochai and Daiyu.