Footnotes

Treasury 7, no. 1501


模製葫蘆胎象牙口雙夔壽紋鼻煙壺
御製品，宮廷作坊，北京，1770～1840


Handful of Snuff

Gourd and ivory; with a flat lip and slightly concave foot; from a four-part mould, with a design repeated on each main side of a shou (longevity) character enclosed by confronting kui dragons, the narrow sides with mask-and-ring handles, the inner neck and lip made from two segments of ivory joined together
Imperial, palace workshops, Beijing, 1770–1840
Height: 5.87 cm
Mouth/lip: 1.16/1.86 cm
Stopper: ivory, carved as half the inside of a walnut; integral ivory collar and separate ivory spoon carved in the form of an open hand; original
Condition: original mould with irregular foot so that the bottle does not stand straight; the surface extensively, but naturally, worn through use, with the skin of the outer rind of the gourd worn through to a darker colour. Spoon and stopper: perfect. General relative condition: more worn at the surface than most gourd snuff bottles, but the wear, revealing the darker inner rind, has created a fortuitous effect resembling a glass overlay where the relief design is thrown into stark contrast


Provenance:
Hugh Moss
Bob C. Stevens
Sotheby, New York, 25 June 1982, lot 201
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd. (1987)

Published:
Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 4, p. 50, fig. 18, and p. 51, fig. 19
Stevens 1976, no. 730 (the spoon illustrated separately on p. 17, no. 11)
Chinese Snuff Bottles and Dishes 1978, p. 114, no. 328
Arts of Asia, September-October 1990, p. 93
Treasury 7, no. 1501

Commentary:
There are several features that set this magnificent gourd apart. The design is a rare one and has been emphasized by the darker patination of much of the relief, giving it somewhat the appearance of an imperial glass overlay bottle of the mid-Qing period. The ivory lip and inner-neck liner are obviously original, and because of the thickness of the lip, creating an upper-neck-rim, form a prominent part of the aesthetic equation. In this case, the inner-neck and the lip are made of two separate pieces of ivory, rather than the standard one (see, for instance, Treasury 7, no. 1498); it is perhaps a mildly lazier option. It has mask-and-ring handles typical of several of the known Qianlong palace gourds, although it is not reign-marked. Finally, of course, it has a magnificent and rare original stopper and the most exciting spoon of any known snuff bottle, carved as a substantial arm and hand.

We suspect this has to be the most famous of all snuff-bottle spoons, not because there are not many other rather spectacular examples, but because this is the famous Stevens bottle, and he was the first to illustrate spoons separately, focussing on their independent merit as works of art. In his book, Stevens showed an illustration of twenty-one stoppers, complete with their spoons, removed from bottles in his own collection (Stevens 1976, p. 17). This was among them and was obviously the star, despite some fairly stiff competition. Although other old spoons are known carved with hands, often with loose-rings as bracelets on the wrist (and endless modern versions inspired by them), none is on this splendid scale, nor as convincingly carved. This is a real hand, and of substantial size. It is also held out, as if soliciting a gift which, given the role the snuff bottle played in polite bribery and corruption at court, seems rather appropriate.

The method of construction is the same as for Treasury 7, no. 1402. It is the primary mould system, where separate sections of wood are carved with a negative image and strapped around the growing gourd. Each section of the mould covers a quarter of the bottle, with dividing lines vertically at the centre of each main, and each narrow side. The raised lines where the fruit has tried to grow out of the tiny gap between the moulds is more obvious on the two main sides, although it has been cleverly incorporated into the design by serving as the centre of the shou character; palace gourd artists knew the limitations of their craft well, and so used the bulging joint-lines positively.

This subject is a typically imperial one, found with variations on a wide range of palace snuff bottles, and includes the ancient form of the dragon derived from Bronze-age decoration (kui). Kui dragons are highly stylized beasts that can often resemble the usually more sinuous, lizard-like chi dragons, as they do here. The difference between the two lies mainly in the degree of stylisation of the image, although it may be impossible to draw a line at the precise point of demarcation between the two. In this case, although the bodies are rounded and sinuous, they are also radically formalized with limbs turned into scrolling patterns; while the heads are also obviously formalized. Kui and chi dragons were the most popular form of dragons on imperial snuff bottles, and many other works of art. They occur far more often on imperial snuff bottles than the regular five-clawed dragon officially representing the imperial family. Any of these dragons can be seen as representing the emperor, but the elongated bodies of kui and chi dragons also symbolize longevity thus enhancing the more obvious symbolism of the shou character.
Wang Shixiang, the great expert on gourds, tends to date bottles of this type to the Daoguang period, and he is probably right, but see discussion under Treasury 7, no. 1505. If from the Qianlong reign, we might expect it to have a reign mark, but the fact that so many Qianlong moulded gourds are marked, does not necessarily mean that they did not also produce unmarked examples.


一把鼻煙
葫蘆，象牙；平唇、微凹足；以四片模範製成，兩正面有雙夔龍拱壽紋，兩側有獸首啣環耳；頸內與唇由象牙二塊雕成

御製品，宮廷作坊，北京，1770～1840
高：5.87厘米
口經/唇經：1.16/1.86 厘米
蓋：象牙，雕胡桃仁之二瓣種仁之一，一體牙座，別體牙匙雕一把手形；原件
狀態敘述：原來的模範不整齊，葫蘆煙壺因而站不直；葫蘆皮表層因累年觸摸有很多地方磨到了暗色的下一層； 蓋與匙的狀況完善；一般相對的狀態：跟其他的葫蘆煙壺相比，侵蝕多一點，但不同皮層的明暗造成如套料的印象，提高了模印紋飾的浮起效果

來源：
莫士撝
Bob C. Stevens
蘇富比，紐約，1982年6月25日，拍賣品號201
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd. (1987)
文獻﹕
Chinese Snuff Bottles 4， 頁50，圖18、頁51，圖19
Stevens 1976, 編號730（匙﹕頁17，編號11）
Chinese Snuff Bottles and Dishes 1978， 頁114，編號328
Arts of Asia, 1990年9 月～10月，頁93
Treasury 7， 編號1501

說明：
本壺的圖案不平凡，而陽文花紋上的顏色變深使它顯得突出，也讓人聯想到清朝中期的御製套玻璃煙壺。象牙作的頸內與唇形成全體美術平衡的重要元因素；奇特的是，它們是由兩塊象牙作成的，不像一般的由一塊雕琢而成的。獸首啣環耳是乾隆宮廷葫蘆典型的耳，儘管沒有年款證實本壺與它們之間有聯系。最後，本壺既保存奇特的蓋，還具驚世駭目的手形匙。這件手形匙並不是絕無僅有，但是Stevens 氏把它發表了以後，它就聞名當代，而它規模驚人，質感更上一層樓，應該是桃李不言，下自成蹊。問題是﹕在舊社會裏，這麼乾脆伸出手來，是行賄，還是受賄？知者不言，言者不知矣。

本壺是範匏，模具以四瓣木範合成，正面、側正一共留四道範痕，。設計師精巧地用正面的直紋來當做壽字中心的一豎筆。

葫蘆文化巨擘王世襄先生往往認為此種鼻煙壺是道光範製的。不錯，製匏乾隆年間達於大盛，那時的作品多帶年款，不帶乾隆年款的很可能不是乾隆年間的作品。然而，我能不能通過某壺不帶A年款的實際否定，達到某壺是B年間作品的實際肯定？再看夔紋在御製煙壺的普遍，在道光以後，王公貴族代替宮廷大量範製匏器的時候，會不會出現花紋內容如此的模子煙壺？待考。