40 - A FINE AND RARE INCISED PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE, BY ZHOU HONGBINGNANJING, DATED 1906

A FINE AND RARE INCISED PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE, BY ZHOU HONGBINGNANJING, DATED 1906 To Be Sold Without Reserve Of elongated teardrop form, diamond-point incised recto: a poet meeting two peasants among bare trees on a foggy autumnal night below the full moon, verso: a long xingshu prose inscription describing the illustrated encounter and its inspiration by Su Shi’s Chibi Fu - `Ode to the Red Cliff’ ending `mid-spring, bingwu year’, signed `Hongbing, Zhou Yunhong of Baimen, dedicated to the Honourable Liuxi’ with one seal Zhou Height: 8cm Provenance: Nils Nessim, Stockholm, 1968 Guo’an Collection (Ann Kreuger) Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 30th October 2000, lot 615 Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 15th November 2000 (a copy of the original invoice available) Porcelain examples by this master-incisor are rare, and the calligraphic control on the present bottle is outstanding. A similar porcelain bottle was exhibited Snuff Bottles of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1978, cat.no.244, with a glass example cat.no.245. Compare an identical glass bottle in the Bloch collection, exhibited Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of Mary & George Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1994, cat.no.137, and two others in the Bloch collection, Kleiner 1987, nos.133 & 134. For the famous ode by the Song poet Su Dongpo or Su Shi (1036-1101) on the famed scenic spot in Huanggang, Hubei, see Tsang & Moss, Arts from the Scholar’s Studio, no.106 Ω This Lot was imported from outside of the UK, under the Temporary Admission regime 5% import VAT will be charged on the ‘hammer” and 20% VAT will be charged on the ‘buyer’s premium