Footnotes

Treasury 6, no. 1462


紫砂鼻煙壺
青山,宜興，1780～1880


Qingshan's Austerity

Brown stoneware; with a flat lip and flat bulging-hexagonal footrim; the two main sides with convex oval panels, the narrow sides with two facets meeting in a ridge at the centre; impressed low on one panel of one narrow side with the square seal in regular script surrounded by two chi dragons, Qingshan (Green mountain)
Qingshan, Yixing, 1780–1880
Height: 6.15 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.65/1.55 cm
Stopper: coral; gilt-bronze collar
Condition: Small chip in the upper neck rim and lip restored (0.3 x 0.2 cm at the upper neck, with practically no depth into the lip itself). Slight rough edge left where the separate neck was joined to the body, barely visible without magnification and not at all obtrusive. One tiny indentation on one narrow-side facet which is almost certainly part of the original manufacture. General relative condition: apart from the chip, excellent
Provenance:
Robert Hall (1984)

Commentary:
Even if a glazed interior was preferred for the storage of snuff, in Yixing bottles it was obviously not essential, since this and many other Yixing bottles have plain interiors ( see, for instance, Treasury 6, nos. 1463–1466).

There can be little doubt of the aesthetic pecking order of Yixing wares outside of snuff bottles. The mid-Qing literati input encouraged elegant forms and scholarly decoration, and the most exciting wares were those made simply of clay of whatever colour and texture, often decorated by engraving with pictures and inscriptions, often shaped in imitation of ancient forms. Slip-decorated wares, an extension of these plain wares, were equally finely made and scholarly in most cases. Then there was a chasm between these elegant, literate styles of decoration and the enamelled wares that were, frankly, decorative and repetitive. In snuff bottles, where teapots are absent and the literati were less involved, masterly slip-wares command the greatest respect generally, but the plain wares are also recognized as of high merit. These plain wares are the snuff bottle collector's equivalent of the literati teapots, and appreciated accordingly for their material, form and texture.

Qingshan is not recorded among works on Yixing potters, but this single example is enough to establish his status as a master. It is made by luting together manipulated panels of flat, leather-hard stoneware, perfecting both form and surface with various tools, and then firing it. The seal is impressed, as was standard for Yixing seals — and even inscriptions in some cases, as on Treasury 6, no. 1463. Reversed seals or characters for impressing were probably carved into the end of a piece of wood, which was then pressed into the leather-hard stoneware before firing.

With undecorated bottles by unrecorded artists, accurate dating becomes even more difficult. We can assess the quality, but not so easily the age, since high-quality Yixing was produced throughout the Qing dynasty and the Republic era and continues to this day. It is quite likely that high-quality, plain snuff bottles could have been produced at Yixing from the late eighteenth century through to the first half of the twentieth century. The present example, however, is likely to be from the nineteenth century, and probably the first half. While we may not be able to date this particular bottle with much confidence, we can be certain that some of the plain wares are from the first half of the nineteenth century, perhaps even the late eighteenth century. By the 1870s, what appears to be a plain Yixing bottle was already in the William Bragge Collection. In his Bibliotheca Nicotiana, of 1880, it is listed as no. 207 'Oval, flattened, chocolate colour, plain.' No. 208 in the same publication is described as 'Oval, flattened, tapering to base; brown paste; cut and polished as stone; silver stopper, set with coral and jade.'


睹青山之簡靖

紫砂；平唇、平底，二正面凸起，二側面中間有脊狀線，一側一小面模印一方框，框飾以陽文雙螭紋，內模印"青山"陽文楷款

青山,，宜興：1780～1880
帶蓋高：6.15 厘米
口經/唇經：0.65/1.55 厘米
蓋：珊瑚；描金青銅座
狀態敘述：頸緣唇沿間有修補過之小缺口（在頸緣有0.2 x 0.3 厘米大，幾乎不入唇沿）；頸、器身接合處略粗糙， 肉眼幾乎看不見，並不引人注目；一側面有微凹處， 大概是原有的；一般相對的狀況：除小缺口外，極善

來源：
羅伯特．霍爾（1984）

說明：
一般來說，儲存鼻煙的鼻煙壺腹內都施釉，但宜興的煙壺顯然是例外。本壺與諸如Treasury 6， 編號1463～1466，內壁不施釉。

不修飾的宜興煙壺相當於宜興茶壺，所追求的古樸雅趣是文人學士最珍惜的。當然，因為紫砂茶壺有更多的文人參入刻飾，只有紫砂煙壺比較精致的紫砂漿或瓷漿修飾的煙壺才最受歡迎，但無飾紋的煙壺也以其材料、形式、與肌理甚為珍重。

青山不知何人何窯，但看本壺就能明白是紫砂的大師傅作的。宜興器的品質可以評比，但無名匠師作的無飾紋煙壺，乃為朝代、年紀，失落無考矣。清代、民國、現在都出產著高級的宜興器。我們認為，十九世紀前半期出產了比較多的無飾紋紫砂煙壺。William Bragge 珍藏到了1870年代已經收藏了可推定為無飾紋的一件宜興煙壺。Bibliotheca nicotiana （煙草資料，1880年），編號207形容它﹕"圓形，扁瓶形，巧克力色，無飾紋"。同書編號208則是"圓形，扁瓶形，斂腹，棕色顯粘土，切割磨光如寶石，銀蓋，嵌以珊瑚、玉"。