Footnotes

Treasury 2, no. 376


瑪瑙劉海鼻煙壺
芝亭流派，蘇州，1730～1850


Zhiting's White Liu Hai

Agate; adequately but not extensively hollowed with a flat lip and flat foot; carved with a continuous, partially cameo scene of Liu Hai, holding under his right arm a besom and a long cord, a coin tied to its tasselled end, to lure his three-legged toad, which sits on a rock emitting the moon in a cloud of vapour gathering in a vortex above its head, all in a rocky landscape with a pomegranate tree with two large fruit and some maple-like foliage growing from the edge of a convoluted rock
Zhiting school, Suzhou, 1730–1850
Height: 4.41 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.49/1.4 cm
Stopper: coral; turquoise collar
Condition: tiny chip on the inner lip, otherwise in workshop condition

Provenance:
Hugh Moss (1985)
Published:
Moss 1971, p. 67, fig. 174
Kleiner 1987, no. 155
Kleiner 1995, no. 273
Treasury 2, no. 376
Exhibited:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May–June 1993
British Museum, London, June–October 1995
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July–November 1997

Commentary:
This exquisite little bottle is another of the deeper relief group also represented by Treasury 2, nos. 374 and 375, and is similarly small in size. It is also another with the impressive vapour, smoke or cloud deeply carved and heavily formalized which we mentioned under Treasury 2, no. 372, here brilliantly carved so that a small patch of white agate acts as the centre of the vortex around which the vapour swirls. There is no characteristic Zhiting-school serrated rockwork on this example, the small area of rocks to the back of Liu Hai has no serrations, being made up entirely of overlapping angled planes – another staple for the school. Apart from the splendid convoluted rock behind the toad, the majority of the rocks are made up of angular planes set against each other at varying depths. This is the style that appears on a large number of classic imperial-type wares probably made at Suzhou for the court, such as mountain carvings, table-screens, and brush pots with landscape subjects. In Zhongguo yuqi quanji, vol. 6, the following pieces all have a similar style of rockwork carving: p. 52, no. 84; pp. 173–180, nos. 253-263; pp. 196–198, nos. 278–282.

It is with this sub-group of deeply carved Zhiting school works with their extensive use of planar rockwork that we come closest to relating the snuff-bottle style to a broader range of objects carved at Suzhou.

A further, and very rare element of the Zhiting-style is introduced for the first time here, a pomegranate tree, albeit carved with a trunk and branches indistinguishable from those used for pine and maple alike, and no less well carved. The pomegranate was, with its large number of seeds, a symbol of ample progeny and was quite frequently depicted on snuff bottles. It is sometimes shown hanging from a mythical tree which also bears one or more of the other two most auspicious fruit, the peach and the Buddha's-hand fruit (see, for instance, Treasury 1, no. 120). Sometimes the entire fruit forms the bottle, but it is rarely shown simply as fruit hanging from a pomegranate tree, and for the Zhiting school this seems to be a first.

The ink-play involved here (see discussion under Treasury 2, no. 274) is delightful. A small vein of pale agate runs through the middle of the material. At its narrow end it is the vortex for the vapour arising from the toad's mouth, but on the other main side it becomes much larger and rather triangular, and is fringed with an irregular frame of darker colouring. The artist has used the paler agate for the head, one arm and bulging torso of the immortal, and the darker colouring for his hair, upper robes and the besom. To get the material to fit, he has given Liu an exaggerated pose, his right arm thrown well out and almost brandishing the broom he holds in his right hand. The body is also triangular to match the agate inclusion, with the trousered legs close together. This triangular form, standing on one of its points, is balanced splendidly by the weight of the broom and the visual weight of the exaggeratedly long cord to which Liu has attached his tempting coin. It is a bottle that needs close attention to reveal its delights, but in every sense it is in a class with the best of this small sub-group. In the brilliant use of an exciting specimen of agate, the deep relief carving, and the toad and vapour subject, it relates to the J & J example (Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, no. 140, also the front cover illustration for Moss 1971). It must be by the same hand.


芝亭白面劉海

瑪瑙；掏膛尚可，不太徹底，平唇、平底；浮雕通體人物圖像，既劉海，右手臂夾著一把掃帚與一條長繩，繩子飾有流蘇的一端結著一枚錢以引誘三足蟾，那隻蟾吐出來的月亮縣於上邊天空一道彎曲雲氣內，一邊有一棵石榴樹

芝亭流派，蘇州，1730～1850
高：4.41 厘米
口經/唇經：0.49/1.4 厘米
蓋：珊瑚，綠松石座
狀態敘述：作坊狀態，唯口沿有微小缺口

來源：
莫士撝（1985）
文獻﹕
Moss 1971, 頁 67, 編號174
Kleiner 1987, 編號155
Kleiner 1995, 編號273
Treasury 2, 編號376
展覽﹕
Sydney L. Moss Ltd, 倫敦, October 1987
Creditanstalt, 維也納, 1993年5月至6月
大英博物館，1995年6 月至10 月
Israel Museum, 耶路撒冷, 1997年

說明：
本壺圖景中除了蟾後邊的湖石外，坡石以一層一層斧砍輪廓的平面形成，這種雕石法在蘇州作坊為宮廷作的典型御製品上是常見的。《中國玉器全集》卷6，頁54，編號84；頁173～180，編號253～263；頁196～198，編號278～282等山子、桌屏、筆架等，都呈同類的雕石法。這種高浮雕石法讓我們把芝亭流派的煙壺和蘇州他類雕品聯繫起來。

在芝亭流派中，本壺所雕的石榴樹是新的題目。石榴並不是罕見的煙壺主題，有時是跟佛手與桃子配合的（參照推定為蘇州玉雕的Treasury 1, 編號120），有時全壺是石榴形的，但光呈石榴樹懸石榴果則不多見。

只有仔細地觀賞這件煙壺才能領會他多方面的樂趣。雕匠如此利用瑪瑙中的斑紋真正稱得上巧奪天工，這點和高浮雕藝術、蟾吐氣等，都讓人想到 J & J
珍藏的煙壺（Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, 編號140與同書封面）。肯定是同一個人作的。