Footnotes

Treasury 7, no. 1586


雀腦琥珀雕人物鼻煙壺
琥珀人物大師1760～1880


Myth and Mortal

Transparent golden-brown, and opaque, variegated yellow-ochre, brown, and blackish-brown amber (of the variety known as 'root amber); well hollowed, with a flat lip and protruding concave foot; carved with a continuous rocky garden scene with a pine tree and flowering peonies in which, on one main side, Wang Xizhi reaches down towards two geese feeding from a shallow bowl placed on the lower of two flat, table-like planes of a natural rocky outcrop, and on the other with Liu Hai, standing on another rocky outcrop using a string of cash to entice his three-legged toad from turbulent waters below while a maiden immortal stands watching
The Amber Figure Master, 1760–1880
Height: 5.71 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.58/1.63 cm
Stopper: tourmaline; gilt-silver collar
Condition: tiny chip on Wang Xizhi's outstretched right thumb; foot recut a little, presumably to remove chips, and now slightly uneven. General relative condition: apart from the foot area, where the recutting is not visually impairing but leaves the bottle unsteady on its foot, the condition both of the original material and the carving is unusually good

Provenance:
Hugh Moss (HK), Ltd (1999)
Published:
Treasury 7, no. 1586

Commentary:
Amber was an extremely popular material among snuff-takers, and seems to have remained so from the early eighteenth century to the end of the dynasty. We know from the first years of the surviving palace workshops records in Beijing that amber was used to make snuff bottles as early as 1723, and must have been used in the preceding Kangxi reign as well (see under Treasury 7, no. 1576). There are many examples that can be reasonably dated to between the Qianlong and Daoguang reigns, and others that are obviously from later in the dynasty. Given the fragile nature of this soft and delicate material, which will invariably shatter if dropped on any relatively hard surface, and which chips and fractures very easily, we can extrapolate a considerably larger production from relatively plentiful surviving examples.

Like so many of our finer bottles from the earlier period of snuff-bottle manufacture, amber bottles were undoubtedly produced at the court, but were certainly produced elsewhere as well. Treasury 7, no. 1578 is an excellent example of a palace-workshops bottle, and many others, less easily identified as made at or for the court, would have been produced there, including a large number of plain bottles. Private production would have been concurrent, growing like private production in other materials, as the habit of snuff-taking spread from being a primarily northern habit centred at court in Beijing to one involving the rest of the population, a shift that took place from about the mid-Qianlong reign into the Daoguang.

Among the many distinctive groups of amber bottles in existence are a few where a particular carver, or at least workshop can be identified, and this exquisitely carved bottle represents one of them, and one of the most exciting. Because of the originating artist's predominant use of popular mythological and historical figures, we have coined the name 'The Amber Figure Master' for his school. His workshop is, for amber carving, the equivalent of the Zhiting school at Suzhou for hardstone carving. Nor does the comparison end with the quality and complexity of the carving, there are other links. Many of his works, including this one, echo the serrated rock-work style of the Zhiting school and share a sculptural grace and flair in figure carving. With both schools, figures play a prominent role and are always evocative and impressive. In Chinese carving, so many figures are depicted simply as standard, stereotypes for different genders, historical individuals or deities, while the Zhiting school and the Amber Figure Master school, infuse far more individuality into their depictions, admirably exemplified here. Both also make full use of all the natural colouring in their respective materials, albeit in somewhat different ways. Whether this indicates a Suzhou origin for the amber workshop is another matter, but there can be no doubt that Suzhou was responsible for far more than the hardstone carving for which it was famous.

Wang Xizhi (321 - 379) the most influential of Chinese calligraphers who wrote the Lanting Preface of 353 (see Arts from the Scholar's Studio, no. 17 for the artist and his association with geese, and ibid. no. 28 for the Lanting Preface) is depicted in an unusually animated pose, leaning forwards, reaching out to touch one of his favourite geese. By the time this bottle was produced certain standard images of Wang were well established, but The Amber Figure Master has risen above such visual clichés, other than his identifying association with geese, to produce a charming portrait of a sensitive aesthete feeding his beloved geese. Particularly dynamic here is the figure of Liu Hai, who balances, legs akimbo, on the upper reaches of a rocky promontory, his back towards us but his head turned to face us as he twists his shoulders, his arms also spread wide apart feeding the string of cash down across the rock-face to entice his toad from the water beneath. It is one of the most dynamic images of this popular deity known in the snuff-bottle world.

Where The Amber Figure Master differs from the Zhiting school is in his use of colour. Here he tends more towards the style of the Master of the Rocks (see under Treasury 1, no. 133). The Zhiting school tended to use any differences in a very precise manner, as a cameo, so that an area of darker colour would exactly match the outline of a figure's robes, building, foliage, rock, or whatever. Even broader areas of colour fading into the ground colour would be similarly used as a rock face or broad 'wash' of colour. The Master of the Rocks and The Amber Figure Master use colour more subtly, alternating areas of precise, cameo relief work with broader 'washes' of colour. This use of colour may not be as immediately striking, but is every bit as exciting and rewarding. Areas of similar colour for, say, the relief torso of Wang Xizhi and his background are separated by the shadow thrown by the relief, and, on the opposite side of the torso, by a single line of brown used to accentuate the outline of his sleeve. This is a more artistic, less technique-driven use of colour, and better matches the abstract use of colour washes, ink-tones, and shading in the best of literati painting, where what may appear as almost careless, spontaneous, uninhibited application lifts artist and audience above the mundane aspects of the painting into the more spiritual, abstract realm of its inner languages.

For other masterpieces from this workshop, see Treasury 7, no. 1587, where the dating of this school is considered; a large bottle with a mantis and flowers is in Jutheau 1980, p. 134, fig. 1, and one more in Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 3, p. 8, bottom.


劉海金蟾戲，右軍白鵝玩

半透明深紅色琥珀，有不透明雄黃色、赭色、玄色斑（稱"雀腦"者）；掏膛完整，平唇、突出凹底；刻通體人物與奇石異花的景觀，一正面刻王羲之餵飼兩隻鵝， 另一正面刻劉海用錢以引誘三足蟾，右邊有一仙女觀看

琥珀人物大師1760～1880
高：5.71 厘米
口經/唇經：0.58/1.63厘米
蓋：碧璽，描金銀座
狀態敘述：王羲之伸出來的右手母脂上有細小缺口，底有重新剪削的地方，或許是為了削除缺口，因而底面不平；一般相對的狀態：底面之高低不平，雖沒有視覺的印象，但使這件煙壺站得不穩，此外，材料與雕飾的狀況都異常地好

來源：
Hugh Moss (HK), Ltd (1999)
文獻﹕
Treasury 7，編號1586

說明：
琥珀向來是很受歡迎的鼻煙壺材料。據北京作坊的現存檔案，1723年已經出現了宮廷製作的琥珀煙壺，可推測康熙年間也有。因為琥珀是比較易碎的材料，從傳世的琥珀鼻煙壺可以推論，所產的琥珀煙壺數量龐大。民間也有琥珀鼻煙壺的出產，特別是乾隆中期以後，聞鼻煙風行一時。

雖然宮廷作坊和民間作坊的產品常常不容易辨別，有的傳世琥珀具有一個作坊或一個工藝匠的特徵。本精緻雕刻的鼻煙壺就是其中之一，因為雕匠經常多雕大家很熟悉的歷史人物和神話人物，我們給他杜撰了"琥珀人物大師"這個名稱。跟蘇州的芝亭流派一樣，所雕的人物都很有個性，也給人深刻的印象。琥珀人物大師和芝亭流派呈鋸齒狀的坡石雕風也很相似；而且，他們都精巧地利用材料中的斑紋。這不是說琥珀人物大師一定是蘇州人或蘇州作坊，但毫無疑問，蘇州的美術供獻並不限於有名的玉石雕刻。

同時，琥珀人物大師和芝亭流派有所不同。跟卵石皮浮雕大師流派一樣，琥珀人物大師時或謹慎地緊跟材料的斑紋，時或隨心所欲，讓材料顏色的變化漂浮在所雕繪的物體輪廓內外，做成不局限於描繪事物的"淡水彩"。看到本壺王羲之軀幹一邊以浮雕分明，另一邊以袖沿的棕色線條分明，便知一二了。這位雕匠把觀者提升到抽象的境界，跟文人畫的道理不無關係。

本作坊其他傑作及推定時期的問題，見Treasury 7， 編號1587。Jutheau 1980， 頁134，編號1是一件螳蜋花朵大鼻煙壺，還有Chinese Snuff Bottles 3，頁8 ，下。