Footnotes

Treasury 1, no. 147

玄色閃玉譯堂款鼻煙壺


The Cyril Green Yitang Black Jade

Nephrite; extremely well hollowed with a slightly concave foot surrounded by a flat footrim; the foot inscribed in seal script Yitang
1780–1833
Height: 7.18 cm
Mouth/lip: 1.3/1.8 cm
Stopper: amethyst; silver collar
Condition: workshop condition

Provenance:
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.
Cyril Green
Christie's, London, 22 April 1991, lot 53 (with five other bottles)
Published:
Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 2, p. 30, fig. 11
Treasury 1, no. 147

Commentary
The mark on this bottle was discussed in relation to another, rather similar bottle in the J & J Collection (Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, no. 53) and it can now be linked with Nayancheng (1763–1833; see discussion under Treasury 1, no. 146). It is also of grey nephrite, plain form, very well hollowed and with an unusually wide mouth. The two bottles can only have been made either by the same hand or for the same patron exercising the same taste in nephrite bottles. With the alternative radical, we have been able to trace the name to Nayancheng, a well-known Manchu official of the mid-Qing period.
Nayancheng, a 1789 jinshi, was praised by the Jiaqing emperor as a 'pillar of the state'. He spent much of his career in the northwestern provinces, where he tried to manage the complicated trade relationships among the various nationalities there, giving him ample opportunities to appreciate the most precious product of the Qinghai region: nephrite. Four known snuff bottles exist with an alternative writing of his hall name, two with the version found on this bottle. See Treasury 1, pp. 380–385; Hummel 1943, pp. 584–587, Zhao Zhen 1997, and Chen Baiping 1998.

The filling of the entire available area with the name is also unusual. Add to this the choice of seal script, which is the same in five out of the six known bottles belonging to this individual, the tendency to crowd the characters onto the available foot area so that they fill the entire space and the close similarity in material, style and taste of this example and the J & J bottle, and the association of all the bottles with Nayancheng seems confirmed.

This bottle is artistically similar to the J & J Collection example, with similar material, plain form, and a very wide mouth playing a powerful role. Here the natural markings in the stone can be read in a number of different ways, but one obvious way is as a moody ink monochrome painting of towering, tree-clad, and mist-enshrouded mountains.

Green氏譯堂玄玉

閃玉；掏膛完整，微凹底、平底足圈，底刻"譯堂"二字篆款

1780～1833
高：7.18 厘米
口經/唇經：1.3/1.8 厘米
蓋：紫晶，銀座
狀態敘述: 作坊狀態

來源：
Hugh M. Moss Ltd
Cyril Green
佳士得，倫敦，1991年4月22日，拍賣品號53（包括另外五個煙壺）

文獻：
Chinese Snuff Bottles 2, 頁 30, 圖 11
Treasury 1, 編號147

說明：
"譯堂"蓋與"繹堂"同，如"譯審"既"尋繹"意，"譯"通"繹"。繹堂乃那彥成 （1763～1833），滿州正白旗人，1789進士，仁宗曾稱贊那彥成為"柱石之臣"，他在嘉慶九年（1804）初任陝甘總督，嘉慶十二年（1807）任西寧辨事大臣，嘉慶十五年（1810）補授陝甘總督，道光二年（1822），第三次任陝甘總督。他那麼多年在青海安撫民情、加強對藏蒙回漢等民族間復雜貿易關係的管理的同時，好像也有很多機會去欣賞青海的名產之一：軟玉。
帶《繹堂》款的鼻煙壺現存四件，帶《譯堂》的現存兩件，還有壺腹題銘後加《繹堂珍完》四字的一壺（以上參見Treasury 1, 頁380～385，Hummel 1943, 頁584～587， 趙珍1997，陳柏萍1998，等）。

上舉前六壺，雖有"繹"、"譯"的差異，也有一些有意思的共同點。底刻人名的煙壺不多， 只刻名字而不加如"雅完"、"雅製"、"雅完"等字樣的更少。再者，六壺中有五件刻著風格一致的篆體字，而字往往擠滿可利用的壺底空間。最後，本壺的材料、風格、氣質等都和J & J Collection 收藏帶《譯堂》的煙壺是一致的，我們認定這六個鼻煙壺都是跟那彥成有關系的（見Moss, Graham, and Tsang, 1993, 編號53）。J & J 收藏的那壺也是口寬，形貌無花紋，材料相似的，功效強大。