Footnotes

• Exhibited:
  Chinese Snuff Bottles, jointly presented by Hong Kong Chinese Snuff Bottle Collectors Study Group and the Urban Council, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 15 October to 26 November 1977
  
  Illustrated:
  Chinese Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1977, p.31, pl.29
  
  The four-character expression reads shoutong shanjian, which literally translates as 'Longevity like a high mountain'.
  
  For a closely related ruby-red overlay glass bottle originally attributed to Li Junting, see Moss, Graham and Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.5, Glass, Hong Kong, 2000, pp.749-750, no. 1034. Originally attributed to Yangzhou, circa 1800-1840, this group of exceptionally high quality glass snuff bottles, characteristed by low-relief decoration, carefully attached inner footrim and the literati preference of accenting a painting with inscriptions, were considered the work of Li Junting, a master glass maker in Yangzhou. A turquoise-blue glass overlay snuff bottle, illustrated ibid, pp.720-721, no. 1021, and sold in these rooms, 28 May 2010, lot 119, and inscribed in relief seal script 'Precious collection of Mr Li of Jingjiang, twelth month of the year jimao', was originally though to correspond to 1819.
  
  However, recent research by Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent, The World in a Bottle in the World at the End of the Qing Empire. Part 2: Yangzhou Overlay Glass, The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Journal, Vol.XLIII, Number 1, Spring 2011, pp.22-29, has revealed that there were two brothers by the name of Li who are mentioned in Imperial court records for 29 March, 1886: Li Peisong, a taoyuan (circuit intendant); and Li Weizhi, a Yangzhou salt merchant, investor and philanthropist who is recorded as having been deeply involved in fundraising for famine and disaster relief. It is argued that the aforementioned cyclically dated snuff bottle corresponds to 1879. and confirm that 'Li Yunting' was not a glassmaker, but a patron of a local glass-carving workshop, which probably flourished in the 1870s and 1880s.
  
  For another Yangzhou glass overlay snuff bottle, cyclically dated corresponding to 1884, see lot 105.
  
  約1870-1890 (傳)揚州 白套紅玻璃壽同山間鼻煙壺
  
  展覽：
  香港中國鼻煙壺收藏家學會、香港市政局聯辦，《中國鼻煙壺》，香港藝術館，1977年10月15日至11月26日
  
  出版：
  《中國鼻煙壺》，香港藝術館，香港，1977年，頁31，圖版29
  
  壺呈長圓瓶形，直口鼓肩，往下收窄，圓形圈足。半白透明地上套上淡紅色玻璃，壽老拿著扶杖，身後其侍童提著籃子，他們皆面向前方的仙鶴，仙鶴向著他們方向拍起翅膀，兩者有所交流，是侍童餵飼仙鶴似的。壺上還飾有一隻小鹿背著壽桃，其前足提起再回首，生動精緻，另有蝙蝠及靈芝作點綴，上題篆書「壽同山間」，有比喻長壽如山之意。整體雕工細膩，保持淺浮雕之餘，又巧妙地利用玻璃之厚薄表現細節，圈足套之紅玻璃平均整齊，富李均亭流派之特色，是一件精心傑作。
  
  在瑪麗及莊智博收藏中，有一件可作比較的白套紅玻璃鼻煙壺，見莫士撝, Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶著，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，第5冊，頁749-750，編號1034，兩者工藝之準繩，套色之配合如出一轍。此組高質素的鼻煙壺傳是揚州作坊於1800-1840年作，特點在於淺浮雕，圈足套料嚴謹完整，書畫並列，充滿文人氣色，舊多指傳為一流揚州玻璃製造者李韻亭(活躍於1797-1840)作的。其中一件曾指為出自李韻亭之手的例子，藍地白料套鼻煙壺，可參見於同書，頁720-721，編號1021，後拍賣於香港邦瀚斯，瑪麗及莊智博鼻煙壺珍藏：首場，2010年5月28日，拍賣編號119。該壺上題「己卯十二月京江李氏珍藏」，當時定為1819年之作。
  
  可是，最近莫士撝及Stuart H. Sargent在研究《清史錄》中指出，在1886年3月29日宮廷檔案中，在李氏家族其實是有兄弟二人，分別是李培楨(又名李維之)及李培松(又名李韵亭)，前者為一位江蘇士紳，後者為一位揚州鹽商，慈善家，由此推翻上述藍地白料套鼻煙壺之斷代，應是1879年，既然李韻亭是一位商家，在日理萬機的事業上，不可能是一位玻璃製造者，反而是一位贊助者，贊助當地玻璃作坊，而該作坊則活躍於1877-1881年。詳細研究，可參考莫士撝與Stuart H. Sargent合著，〈清朝末期的瓶中世界：第2部份：揚州選彩玻璃〉一文，載於《JICSBS》，2011年春季刊，頁22-29。

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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