Footnotes

Treasury 2, no. 318


雕銘巧色瑪瑙二匹馬鼻煙壺
頒賜類，1740～1840

The Schoen Lucky Companions Cameo

Chalcedony; very well hollowed, with a concave lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding broad, convex footrim; carved with a partially cameo design of two horses grazing in a rocky landscape by a stream with a cameo inscription in relief clerical script 'Lucky is the horse who drinks with a companion from a spring'
Official school, 1740–1840
Height: 6 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.62/2.21 cm
Stopper: jadeite; gold collar
Condition: perfect
Illustration: watercolour by Peter Suart

Provenance:
General Brayton Ives
Parish Watson & Co., New York
Martin Schoen
Kenneth Brown Inc.
Christie's, New York, 22 September 1987, lot 213
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (1987)

Published:
China Institute in America 1952, no. 59 (listed but not illustrated)
Moss 1971, no. 135
Stevens 1976, no. 569
Treasury 2, no. 318

Commentary:
This is another of the masterly bottles that appear to be of the Official school but reflect the Suzhou style of the school of Zhiting (see discussion under the previous example, Treasury 2, no. 317). Again the reference to the Suzhou school is found only in the relief inscription in a different colour and in the rockwork style which, unlike the last example, even includes Suzhou-style serrations cut into the multiple lines of the rocks. Otherwise it is a standard Official school bottle in every way, including the subject matter which is common for the school (see discussion under Treasury 2, no. 306). Although the paler horse is well rounded and carved in the ground colour apart from the masterly touch of using the relief, darker plane for its visible eye, the dark horse takes advantage of a thin plane of dark colour as do so many of the silhouette bottles of this school, and is essentially a two dimensional depiction simply raised to a relief plane. This is quite atypical of Zhiting's school, to which the rock-style here seems to be referring. Even on the occasional Zhiting school jade using a thin plane of skin, the carvers at Suzhou tended to keep the whole design in low relief, rather than use a raised, flat plane for a linear depiction.

This, the form, and the undecorated back, typical of the Official school and rare at Suzhou, all link the bottle to the Official school, but there is another telling detail that further endorses the belief that it is an Official school bottle referring to Suzhou style, rather than the other way round. It is the use of a series of parallel incised lines as grass, or rock detailing carved into the rockwork (see discussion under Treasury 2, no. 306). This detail on rocks was second nature to the Official school, possibly even to the point that carvers had, by the mid-Qing period, even forgotten why they were doing it. If a Suzhou carver wanted to copy the rockwork style of the Official school, and it is difficult to imagine why, since their own rock-style was so much more impressive as a rule, they would surely have copied the form rather than the meaningless detail superimposed upon it. This detail is unknown from the Zhiting school but practically obligatory on rocks for the Official school.

This is of the same subject as one of the other stylistic cross-over bottles in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Helen White, Snuff Bottles from China, Plate 19, no. 3) and bears the same inscription also in cameo clerical script, translated by Helen White as: 'Envy their friendship in enjoying a drink at a running brook.'

As with other subjects where two creatures are shown, one dark and the other light, the yinyang symbol of Daoist cosmology would also have been evoked, adding another layer of meaning to this particular bottle which is absent from the one in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Although this bottle is not illustrated in the Schoen catalogue, it is unquestionably the same bottle. Even without Bob Stevens' identification of it as having come from the Schoen Collection, it is well described in the catalogue, complete with a correct translation of the inscription, rare in so early a catalogue, and it still has the same stopper.

The stopper is distinctive, and one of a small group which may have been made early this century in China for a particular exporter of snuff bottles, perhaps specifically for the American market since they seem to have ended up in early American collections. They are of solid gold, which is unusual, incorporating an integral cork and spoon, also in gold, and have the series of overlapping circles as the collar decoration and always sit over the neck, the collar designed to cover the upper few millimetres of neck (in this case 3 mm). They may have been made by or for a Western dealer or collector. The idea of overlapping the neck in this way would be strange for any Chinese dealer who would have understood the standard for stoppers in China. The lack of hall mark, however, raises the possibility that they may have been made in the East.


舍恩氏結伴的浮雕壺

瑪瑙；掏膛非常規整， 凹面唇、平斂底、突出寬底凸形圈足；浮雕兩匹馬臨水，其背景有浮雕"羨他結伴飲流泉"七字的磐石

頒賜類，1740～1860
高：6.0 厘米
口經/唇經：0.62/2.21 厘米
蓋：翡翠，黃金座
狀態敘述：完整無缺

有彼德小話 (Peter Suart) 水彩畫
拍賣品號20之來源：
Brayton Ives 將軍 (1840～1914）
Parish Watson & Co., 紐約
Martin Shoen
Kenneth Brown Inc.
佳士得，紐約，1987年9月22日，拍賣品號213
Hugh M. Moss Ltd (1987)
文獻：
China Institute in America 1952, 編號59（有錄無圖）
Moss 1971, 編號135
Stevens 1976, 編號569
Treasury 2, 編號 318

說明：
本壺可定為賜頒類之傑出作品之一。它也表現蘇州芝亭流派的滋味，特別是在不同顏色的浮雕題句和雕坡石的皴法。但內容還是賜頒類的正宗題目之一。鴨黃色的馬雕得很豐滿，玄色的一匹則儘管也有層次感，但基本上還是浮雕的平面二維圖畫。這不是芝亭流派典型的雕法，跟芝亭流派味的磐石有點矛盾。而蘇州雕法，瑪瑙紋理就是薄薄的一片，卻仍然要用淺浮雕法，雕不出像本壺玄色馬的凸起的平面。

本壺的形式和無花紋的背面也是蘇州雕刻少見的。再加上二匹馬下邊點草的方式，是賜頒類在草地和坡石上所用的很整齊的典型皴法，是芝亭流派的作品中找不到的。總之，我們認為本壺屬於賜頒類而只在浮雕題句和坡石皴法方面上喚起蘇州雕風的。倘若蘇州的一位雕刻匠想放棄蘇州優秀的湖石藝術傳統而喚起賜頒類的模樣的話，他大概會模仿形式而不顧那些沒有意義的細節。

維多利亞和阿爾伯特博物館收有內容相同、題句一樣的風格交叉的一壺，參見White 1990, 圖19編號3。只是那件沒有白馬黑馬的陰陽映襯。

雖然舍恩珍藏目錄沒有本壺的圖片， 所錄的毫無疑問就是這件壺。且不說Bob Stevens 的聲明，目錄的描述很詳細，包括題句的正確翻譯（這是西洋早期的目錄頗少見的）和現今所帶的蓋的描述。

蓋很特別，也許是二十世紀初為了一家出口商的煙壺作的；這種蓋出現在美國的收藏系列比較多，該出口商的目標市場也許就是美國。獨特的是，它們是純金作的；塞、匙一體，也是純金；座一週有交疊圓環的花紋，而覆蓋著頸上部（本座覆蓋3 厘米）。可能是西方進口商或者收藏家作的，也可能是出口商給西方進口商或者收藏家作的。覆蓋頸上端這個方式，在中國內行眼中一定太奇怪了，但是因為沒有甚麼印記，我們無法證實蓋子不可能是在東方作的。