Footnotes

• Treasury 5, no. 1053
  
  白玻璃刻蘭亭修禊圖鼻煙壺
  壺：大概為浙江鴛湖製品，約1903年
  刻飾：周鴻來，杭州，1903年
  
  An inscribed white-glass 'Lanting Preface' snuff bottle
  ('Orchid Resonance')
  
  Translucent white glass; with a concave lip and concave, pointed foot; engraved on one main side with a landscape scene depicting what may be an imaginary setting for the events described in the 'Lanting Preface,' with an open pavilion on a grassy slope near bamboo groves with a body of water and distant mountains beyond, inscribed in draft script, 'The Purification Ceremony Conducted at the Lanting ('Orchid Pavilion'), made by Yanbin,' with one seal of the artist in positive seal script, Zhou, the other main side with the entire text of the 'Lanting Preface,' preceded by, 'In mid-summer of the year bingwu, [I] copied the full text of Mr. Wang Xizhi's "Lanting Preface",' and followed by, 'Made by Zhou Yanbin of Baimen at Lin'an,' with one seal of the artist in positive seal script, Zhou
  Bottle: possibly Yuanhu, Zhejiang province, circa 1903
  Decoration: Zhou Honglai, Hangzhou, 1903
  Height: 5.38 cm
  Mouth/lip: 0.52/1.68 cm
  Stopper: tourmaline; coral collar
  
  Condition: one tiny bubble in third line of calligraphy on reverse filled with black, the cut bubble being a natural part of the glass-polishing process; some abrasions to foot and edges, not obtrusive; otherwise, in workshop condition
  
  Provenance:
  Robert Hall (1996)
  
  Published:
  Treasury 5, no. 1053
  
  Commentary
  Dispersed among the shapes more commonly used by Zhou Honglai and the earlier glass bottles on which he occasionally worked, we find a small group of unusual shapes, apparently made by the same glassmaker, of which this is an example. The glass is of the same distinctive range, and there is reason to believe that he acquired them from the same source, which we think was Yuanhu, in Zhejiang province. The inscription states that this bottle was engraved at Lin'an, or Hangzhou, but Zhou seems to have been a visitor to Hangzhou rather than a long-term resident there. Since his Treasury 5, no. 1051, also carved in Hangzhou, is dated the autumn of 1901, however, he may possibly have remained in Hangzhou for a lengthy period. Or Zhou may have made two shorter visits, for the journey from his native Nanjing to Hangzhou was neither difficult nor lengthy and one he could have made easily enough along the Grand Canal and a short stretch of the Yangzi.
  
  The landscape is interesting in its refusal to depict the ostensible subject, the Lanting gathering. Here we find no scholars playing their poetic drinking game, nor the stream along which servants floated cups of wine they were obliged to drain if they failed to come up to scratch in the poetry competition. Also absent is Wang Xizhi, customarily depicted writing his preface in an open pavilion, his favourite geese in the water nearby. There is a finger painting by Zhu Lunhan (1680 – 1760) that has a similarly unpopulated vision of 'Winding stream at the Lanting', so this is not without precedent. And one could argue that painting with one's finger or micro-engraving both encourage and entitle an artist to adopt the spare style of the Yuan painter Ni Zan, regardless of the subject matter. Or perhaps it is without the distraction of other guests at the gathering that we can best enter the scene in our imagination and, in the words of the Preface, 'watch the immense universe above and the myriad things below, travelling over the entire landscape with our eyes and allowing our sentiments to roam about at will, thus exhausting the pleasures of the eye and ear.'
  
  白玻璃刻蘭亭修禊圖鼻煙壺
  
  透亮的白玻璃；凹唇，凹底；一面微刻山水圖，其上刻"蘭亭修禊鴈賓作"，後加黑文"周"篆印 ，一面書《蘭亭序》全文，引文為"時丙午仲夏，錄王羲之先生蘭亭序..."最後書"白門周鴈賓作於臨安"，後又加黑文"周"篆印
  壺： 或許是浙江鴛湖製品，約1903年
  刻飾：周鴻來，杭州， 1903年
  高：5.38 厘米
  口經/唇經：0.52/1.68 厘米
  蓋： 碧璽; 珊瑚座
  
  狀態敘述： 題文第三行有微小的氣泡以黑色料填補的，是拋光玻璃時切開的；底與棱角有所磨耗，並不觸目; 此外，出坊狀態
  
  來源：
  Robert Hall (1996)
  
  文獻：
  Treasury 5, 編號 1053
  
  說明
  周鴻來曾有些壺坯是跟他平時用的形式不一樣，這是一個例子。我們想它們是浙江鴛湖製的。
  
  本壺刻的山水圖上沒有蘭亭雅集的四十二位參與者，也找不到王羲之和他愛戴的鵝。清朱倫瀚指畫 《蘭亭曲水》 也是比較儉朴的，可能是因為微刻和指畫的難度所致，也許是旁邊沒有人的時候我們才能"仰觀宇宙之大，俯察品類之盛，所以游目騁懷，足以極視聽之娛"。

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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