Footnotes

Treasury 7, no. 1487


刻銘椰殼鼻煙壺
右山，1810～1900

Long-lived Bronze

Coconut shell and bamboo; with no functional foot; made of two convex segments held together with eight bamboo pins around the edges; carved on one main side with an oval panel with an encomium on snuff in relief seal script, followed by one seal of the artist, Youshan, all on a rough, stippled ground, and on the other with an irregular panel, also with a roughened ground plane, with a relief inscription taken from an ancient bronze, with a regular-script transcription beside it: 'Huiji made this sacrificial tripod for use in his prayer for a long life'
Youshan, 1810–1900
Height: 6.65 cm
Mouth: 0.48 cm
Stopper: coral, in the form of a severed twig
Condition: perfect condition. General relative condition: extraordinary—in original condition.

Provenance:
The Fulford Collection
H. G. Beasley
Miss M. A. Beasley
Sotheby's, London, 2 July 1984, lot 76

Published:
Kleiner 1987, no. 210
Orientations, October 1987, front cover and p. 45, no. 19
Treasury 7, no. 1487

Exhibited:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May-June 1993

Commentary
This magnificent example of a literati coconut-shell snuff bottle is of the simplest construction method consisting only of two convex segments of the shell joined together (see discussion under Treasury 7, no. 1486, and for another example, Moss 1971a, p. 95, no. 145). Although glue was probably used, the two sides are held precisely in place and the join strengthened by the use of small pins. In this case they are made of bamboo (there are eight of them) almost symmetrically placed around the edges, in other examples they appear to be made from coconut-shell (see, for instance, Treasury 7, no. 1369). This is also one of the larger known examples of the type, giving it greater capacity than is usual for bottles made in this manner.

One main side represents a standard for many of these literati coconut-shell bottles from the nineteenth century. It bears a copy of an inscription taken from an ancient bronze (although other ancient inscriptions may also feature) accompanied by a transcription of the text into a more readily legible form. The main reason for late-Qing, scholarly interest in ancient bronzes and stele was because they revealed the origins and evolution of the language. Many nineteenth century scholars collected the bronzes not so much for their own merits as for their inscriptions, and many scholars collected not the bronzes, but rubbings of their inscriptions. This was even more true of a stele, where the original was usually an unmanageable tablet of stone leaving rubbings as the only practical method of 'collecting' such inscriptions. Thus the correct interpretation of the ancient scripts was the focus of interest so that a bottle such as this would not only contain its physically addictive content it would also refer powerfully to the psychologically addictive process of scholarship itself.

On the other main side, our mysterious scholar-artist has played an intriguing visual game. He has either written, or borrowed an encomium on snuff, praising its virtues, and signing it modestly with only a seal containing his hao or adopted artistic name. It is all written in seal script confirming the artist's scholarly nature. Here our mysterious Youshan has not only chosen an ancient script, but has set it against a stippled ground to imitate a relief inscription on an ancient stone stele - he has purposely varied the ground to make it different from the roughened ground of the bronze inscription on the other side.

The encomium reads:

Its taste is sour; its odour, fragrant.
It is used for clearing [the nose so as to] ease [breathing].

Youshan is a hao which means 'Right-hand mountain,' or 'The Mountain on the Right.' It is not recorded as having been adopted by any likely scholar, so the author of this masterpiece remains, for the time being, unidentified other than by his assumed artistic name. Whoever he was, and he may well be one of the known scholars who signed other works more recognizably, he was clearly well practised in the art of carving, and a master of the 'iron-brush' suggesting he was probably also a seal carver, as were so many literati artists.

右山刻之，以介眉壽

椰殼、竹；沒有站立功能的足，由以八個竹銷子連接的兩片凸形椰殼作成，一面刻開光，其中粗糙地浮雕 "其味酸其臭蘭其氣疏以達"十一篆體字，其後加"右山"一印，另一面不規則形粗糙地開光中刻"慧季作其般鼎用祈眉壽"十浮雕金石體字，開光外左邊有楷體釋文

右山，1810～1900
高：6.65厘米
口經：0.48 厘米
蓋：珊瑚，雕切斷的小枝
狀態敘述：完美無缺，一般相對的狀況：特好

來源：
Fulford 珍藏
H. G. Beasley
Miss M. A. Beasley
蘇富比， 倫敦，1984年7月2 日，拍賣品號76

文獻：
Kleiner 1987, 編號210
Orientations 1987年10月封面與頁45，編號19
Treasury 7, 編號1487
展覽：
Sydney L. Moss Ltd, 倫敦, 1987年10 月
Creditanstalt, 維也納, 1993年5月至6月

說明：
這件傑出的文人椰殼煙壺的結構最簡單，不過是兩片凸形殼子粘在一起。（Treasury 7,編號1486說明中論述著椰殼煙壺各種結構；Moss 1971a， 頁95， 編號145是另一個例子。）兩殼子大概是用膠水粘合的，但是匠人也用了周圍對稱的八條竹銷子把它們在適當的位置弄牢。有時，這種銷子是椰殼作的；參見Treasury 7, 編號1369。本壺是椰殼煙壺最大者之一，容量較大。

在椰殼煙壺上抄錄古銅器的銘文是十九世紀文人的習俗，周所眾知，清代的學者除典籍考證學以外，還對上古文物的銘刻非常感興趣，同樣是追求字源、辭源的熱潮。銘文和碑文的拓本當然比原物容易收藏、與同仁分享，本壺一類的椰殼壺可算是拓本或十九世紀後半流行的拓本影印本的變體。聞鼻煙成癮和喜愛文物銘文成癖是否有關系，由讀者考慮吧。

慧季的銘記可能是拼湊性的仿作，但似真性較大，反之，壺身另一面的文字大概是高深莫測的右山自己撰的 "鼻煙讚"。開光內的地跟反面的一樣是粗糙的，字體也是古老的，可是兩者的粗糙紋理和字體畢竟不同，在一件煙壺中具有同工異曲之妙。

"右山"顯然是別號，但明代以後號右山的人寥若晨星，我們不知道本壺的右山是誰，唯必定是有一定文化水平的雕刻高手，可以推測他也有雕刻印章的經驗。