AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS 'NANJING DOCUMENTS' SNUFF BOTTLE DING ERZHONG, 1902

Collection of Gerry P. Mack.
Robert Kleiner & Co., Ltd.
White Wings Collection, 1998.

Christie’s, London, 1999.

Hugh Moss, ed., Chinese Snuff Bottles, no. 3, London, 1965, p. 56, fig. 68, and p. 61, fig. 81.
Robert Kleiner, Images of Asia: Chinese Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong and New York, 1994, pl. 23.
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles: The White Wing Collection, London, 1997, p. 246, no. 170.
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. 557.

The foot of the bottle is somewhat uneven and less carefully made than his usual glass bottles, because he had left Beijing by 1902 and had no further access to the Beijing suppliers of blanks. Both bottle and painting are in original condition, although the painting may be very slightly faded from snuff.
"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."

From early in his career Ding included in his repertoire paintings of miscellaneous fragments of calligraphy, paintings, and other paper artefacts. The earlier examples of this consist of two or three separate documents, sometimes a painting, and sometimes either a rubbing of an ancient inscription or a rubbing of ancient tile ends with inscriptions on them. (See Sale 2, lot 101, for instance.) As he developed the subject, however, it became more complicated and culminated in the masterpieces painted between 1898 and 1905 — the last, one of his great masterpieces of the genre, in the J & J Collection (Moss, Graham, and 1993, no. 418). For more on this subject, called Bapo 八破 among other terms, see also Sale 4, lot 40 and Berliner 1992.

Ding’s later paintings of documents and rubbings are all masterpieces, and this is no exception. They are also all combined with a good deal of calligraphy in either his characteristic draft script or the impressive clerical script seen on the present bottle, which is a quotation of the beginning of the Yueyanglou ji 岳陽樓紀 (‘An Account of the Yueyang Tower’) by the Song writer and politician Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 (989–1052):

慶曆四年春，滕子京謫守巴陵郡。越明年，政通人和，百廢具興。乃重修岳陽樓，增其舊製，刻唐賢、今人詩賦於其上。屬予作文以記之。

予觀夫巴陵勝狀，在洞庭一湖。銜遠山，吞長江，浩浩湯湯 ·····

In the spring of the fourth year of the Qingli era (1044), Teng [Zongliang 宗諒, courtesy name] Zijing was exiled to act as prefect of old Baling Commandery. A year later, the administration ran smoothly and the people were in harmony, and abandoned projects were all revived. And so they restored Yueyang Tower, enlarging its scale and engraving on it the poems and rhapsodies of Tang worthies and present-day writers. I was enlisted to write this essay to commemorate it.

In my opinion, the most enchanting aspect of Baling is Lake Dongting, [which the tower overlooks]. It takes in the distant mountains and swallows the Yangzi River, vast and roiling ….

Jinling is the old name for Nanjing. The only other bottle inscribed as being done at Nanjing is Sale 8, lot 1182, from the winter of 1903. The last positive identification with either Beijing or Xuannan appears in the winter of 1898, on the magnificent bottle from the Kreuger Collection inscribed with and illustrating the ‘Lanting Preface’. It has an additional inscription dated to the summer of 1901 where Ding notes that he was visiting Wumen 吳門, the Suzhou area, close to Nanjing and far from Beijing.

J. H. Leung (A New Look of Chinese Inside-painted Snuff Bottles, 1990) was informed by a descendent of Ding that he believed Ding moved from Beijing to Nanjing at some time during 1900; this is consistent with what the bottles indicate.