AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS 'LAKESIDE LANDSCAPE' SNUFF BOTTLE DING ERZHONG, 1898

together with a watercolour illustration by Peter Suart

Collection of Bob C. Stevens.
Sotheby's New York, 26th March 1982, lot 218.
Ashkenazie, San Francisco, 1988. 

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, British Museum, London, 1995, cat. no. 392.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997. 
Christie’s London, 1999.

Bob C. Stevens, The Collector’s Book of Snuff Bottles, New York and Tokyo, 1976, no. 878.
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. 550.

There is a nibble to the outer footring. The inside painting has been generally well preserved except for a few spoon scratches especially to the inscribed side. There are also residues from use.
"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."

Nantian laoren was the sobriquet of Yun Shouping 惲壽平 (1633–1690), better known for his bird-and-flower paintings than for his landscapes, although he also painted landscapes. Whether or not Ding adhered closely to Yun Shouping’s style, which in this case he does not appear to have done, is incidental in such references to earlier masters.

This is another of Ding’s masterpieces of the landscape genre in the style that one begins to see hints of in 1897; it is further evolved here, and culminates in the masterpieces of Sale 1, lot 62; Sale 5, lot 150; Sale 7, lot 67; and Sale 9, lot 193. It might be called his ‘formal rocks’ style, where abstract intentions predominate. It is recognisable, apart from this intention, by the use of large rock forms balanced against smaller boulders set around their bases, even when the distance is indicated by the composition.

A hint of this fully-fledged abstract-intent style is to be seen in lot 6 of the present sale, where two boulders are set in the water in the middle ground and where the upper peak is fringed with smaller boulders, and here it is developed still further with the startling compositional element of the rock-face entering from the top of the picture, but it is also noticeable on the other side in the fringe of smaller boulders that define the upper, diagonal line of peaks.