Footnotes

Treasury 4, no. 528


水晶內畫雕蝶畫魚鼻煙壺
葉仲三，北京崇文區杏林齋，1905年

Wilkinson's Delight

Crystal, ink, and watercolours; with a flat lip and concave foot surrounded by a flat foot with a hexagonal outer profile; carved on one facet with a butterfly; painted with a continuous composition of nine fish, comprising six fan-tailed goldfish and three minnows swimming among aquatic plants in a pond with a grassy rock formation set on its bank, with a chrysanthemum and begonia growing around it, inscribed in draft script, 'Executed by Ye Zhongsan in the third month of the year yisi', with one seal of the artist, yin (seal), in negative seal script

Ye Zhongsan, the Apricot Grove Studio, Chongwen district, Beijing, third month, 1905
Height: 5.69 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.53/1.46 cm
Stopper: coral, with integral finial and collar
Condition: Material: some icy flaws in the neck area. Bottle: signs of chips having been polished out of one side of the neck leaving a slight indentation half way down the neck and that side of the neck narrower than the other; a possible bruise at the lip imperceptibly joining the internal flaws, making it difficult to judge whether the former is a bruise or not and were it ends. Painting: studio condition


Provenance:
Puttick and Simpson (circa 1960)
Sydney L. Moss Ltd. (circa 1960)
C. S. Wilkinson (circa 1970)
Hugh Moss (1985)
Published:
JICSBS, Autumn 1982, p. 37, figs. 92 and 92a
Kleiner 1987, no. 275
Treasury 4, no. 528
Exhibited:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May–June 1993
Christie's, London, 1999

Commentary
This is one of Ye Zhongsan's masterpieces from 1905 (see discussion under Treasury 4, no. 527). The symbolic subject of fan-tailed goldfish in a pond is dealt with under Treasury 4, no. 488, and of a group of nine fish under Treasury 4, no. 527. The begonia and the chrysanthemum both flower in autumn and thus usually represent this season. That the bottle was already old when Ye painted it is suggested by the butterfly carved on one facet. Had Ye ordered the bottle for painting, he would never have asked for an incongruous butterfly to be added to one face, and then ignored it in composing his subject, other than to minimize its incongruity by painting the rocky outcrop behind it in order to have it interfere as little as possible with the main subject of his painting. The faceting of the crystal adds an intriguing dimension to the subject here. By refracting the light they throw patterns across the design like sunlight refracted by water.

Quite apart from being one of Ye's finest versions of the subject in a lovely early crystal bottle, it has a special appeal to Hugh Moss, who once owned it for a while. It was the first inside-painted snuff bottle that caught his eye when he first joined his father's business in 1960. It appeared in a minor local auction house catalogued just as a snuff bottle with an estimate of about two pounds sterling, a not inconsiderable sum for a snuff bottle in those days. Moss saw the bottle, was excited by it, went out and bought a copy of Lilla S. Perry's newly published book, Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Adventures and Studies of a Collector, identified it as the work of Ye Zhongsan, and suggested to his father that they should buy it. Sydney L. Moss carried snuff bottles in those days, but without any enthusiasm and almost incidentally. They were intended not so much as objects of art but as a useful diversion for spouses and children of serious collectors so they would not interrupt them when they were considering a Tang horse, or a piece of porcelain or jade. His father turned down his request with a curt, 'We deal in antiques not modern snuff bottles.' After a day of guerrilla public relations, his father's shattered peace finally prompted him to allow a small bid on the bottle. Armed with instructions not to exceed the estimate, he set off jauntily for the auction. The bottle quickly exceeded its estimate. He bought it anyway, at six pounds, and with a thumping chest returned to announce his purchase to his father. His father, not given to tantrums in the normal course of events, was icily furious. It was pointed out that if he could not tell the difference between an instruction to buy something up to two pounds and one to buy it up to six pounds, he was in the wrong business, and, that since that business belonged to his father, he had better quickly learn to follow instructions. Chastened but cocky as ever, Moss boldly announced that he knew he could sell it and that he would not have bought it at that price otherwise. The upshot was that Moss was given a fortnight to sell it at a profit, or the money would be taken out of his salary and he could take the bottle as a memento of his stupidity.

That afternoon the eclectic connoisseur, C. S. Wilkinson strolled into the shop to have a look around. Moss slipped the bottle into his waistcoat pocket and followed him around the small shop waiting for an opportunity to get 'Wilky', as he was known, away from his father's clutches and all to himself. One arose, and he slipped the bottle from his pocket into Wilky's hand and explained that he had just found it in a minor sale, identified it, and thought it was one of Ye's finest works. He brought out Perry's book and showed him the illustrations of others by the artist and then played his trump card: 'I thought I might collect them.' he said, asking Wilky what he thought of this plan. The moment the bottle was in danger of slipping back into the waistcoat pocket for good, Wilky decided that not only was collecting these things a good idea, but he himself should do it, starting with this very bottle, since he found it delightful. The bottle changed hands, the son was off the hook, and the father was convinced that he should be allowed a little more leeway in building up this side of the business since he seemed so keen on it and had just made a small profit in less than three hours.

It took Moss, who also started to collect in the wake of this experience, a decade to talk Wilky out of the bottle again so he could add it to his own collection, and only then did he realize just how stupid he had been. Paying Wilky several hundred pounds for it, it dawned on him that he could have had it for six pounds if he had failed to sell it all those years ago and settled for the disapproval of his father.

威爾金森亦知之濠上矣

水晶、墨、水色；平唇、凹底、八稜形圈足，一面雕一蝶，內畫六條扇尾金魚三條小魚、水藻，池邊有湖石、秋海棠、菊，上有行書寫"乙巳桃月葉仲三作"，並繪畫白文 "印" 篆印

葉仲三，北京崇文區杏林齋，1905年3 月
高：5.69 厘米
口經/唇經：0.53/1.46厘米
蓋：珊瑚，與頂飾、座為一體
狀態敘述：水晶：頸部有三個結冰似的瑕疵；壺：頸一邊有似乎疵點修磨的痕跡，頸中部有微凹處，唇沿或許有撞擊痕，但與水晶瑕疵混合，很難辨別；內畫：出齋狀態

來源：
Puttick and Simpson 拍賣商 (約1960)
Sydney L. Moss Ltd (約1960)
C. S. Wilkinson (尹建新，約1970)
莫士撝 (1985)

文獻：
《國際中國鼻煙壺協會的學術期刊》Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, 1982年秋期，頁37，圖92、92a
Kleiner 1987, 編號 275
Treasury 4, 編號 528
展覽：
Sydney L. Moss Ltd, 倫敦, 1987年10 月
Creditanstalt, 維也納, 1993年5月至6月
佳士得，倫敦，1999年

說明：
這件內畫九魚圖的鼻煙壺是葉仲三1905年的傑作之一。因為一琢面雕呈蝴蝶，我們認為葉仲三是舊壺畫新圖的；蝴蝶不太配合秋天的草花與金魚等內容，葉仲三不會是叫雕刻匠給他加上蝴蝶；相反的，他蝴蝶後邊畫了個坡石與雜草，掩飾矛盾。

琢面水晶壺射折光讓人聯想到太陽光在池塘中的折光，但這件煙壺對莫士撝來說有美學價值以外的意義。1960年，年青的莫士撝剛剛參入他父親的美術館的時候，本壺是第一件內畫煙壺能把他迷住的。它出現在附近的小規模拍賣商裏，目錄只說是件煙壺，估價兩英鎊，在當時不算便宜。看了貨以後，莫士撝買了Lilla S. Perry 著《中國鼻煙壺：一個藏家的奇遇與研究》，認定那件煙壺是葉仲三的作品，就向父親提出把他買入的主意。那時的Sydney L. Moss 公司有煙壺出售，但不過是附帶的買賣。鼻煙壺不算是藝術品，用處在供熱衷藏家的太太和孩子們一點消遣，不要他們在爸爸考慮唐代三彩馬或瓷器、玉器甚麼的時候偏喧嘩胡鬧起來了。莫士撝的父親果然不采納兒子的意見，卻道"我們這兒經營古董，不經營摩登鼻煙壺！"過了一天的多次遊說、多方擾襲，父親就退一步了，讓兒子去喊價，只是不許超越估價，也要保證不久就會獲利。莫士撝喜洋洋地去參加拍賣會，只見喊價不斷上升，不得已，就以六鎊天價買下了。父親從來是不怒自威，現在狠狠地看了兒子一眼，冷冷地教訓他：如果他不懂限價為兩鎊的指令和限價為六鎊的指令有甚麼不同，他是最應該改行的；而他姑且還是快點學習怎麼遵循本美術館的老板的指示。莫士撝這就變得謹慎一點，但他老是傲頭傲腦的，大膽地宣言他一定會把那件煙壺賣掉，所以他才是買來的。結果呢，莫士撝要在兩星期之內賣貨取利，超越了截止期限，他薪金就要扣除六鎊，煙壺可以留下當做自己愚蠢的記念品。

那天下午兼收並蓄的鑒賞家C. S. Wilkinson 走進店子來觀光，莫士撝就把煙壺悄悄塞入背心的口袋兒裏，在小商店裏跟著他溜轉，等有機會私下跟"Wilky"（他的外號）商議。時候到了，莫士撝又悄悄地把煙壺塞到他手裏，說明他這件小拍賣會買來的煙壺是葉仲三畫的，也可算是他佳品之一。然後他給Wilky看《中國鼻煙壺：一個藏家的奇遇與研究》中葉仲三其他的內鼻煙壺，就撒了手鐧，說，"我想採集這種煙壺，不知道您覺得我這個想法怎麼樣？"煙壺快要永遠返回背心的口袋兒裏，Wilky就不但承認這個想法很好，而且決定他自己應該照樣去做，也應該從這件悅目的一壺下手。煙壺轉手了，兒子擺脫了危境，父親看他不到三個小時就得了點小利，又有熱心，就肯定了這事業可以由莫士撝來擴充。

果然，此後莫士撝真的開始採集煙壺，過了十年以後他才能用花言巧語把本壺從Wilky那兒買回來。那時，他突然覺悟了，現在花幾百鎊錢把它買回來，不如那時受父親的氣，不吝惜六鎊那麼一小筆錢而收藏了它。