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A LARGE WHITE JADE 'RED CLIFFS AND WEIQI GAME' SNUFF BOTTLE 1750-1850 image 1
A LARGE WHITE JADE 'RED CLIFFS AND WEIQI GAME' SNUFF BOTTLE 1750-1850 image 2
PROPERTY FROM THE FRANCINE AND BERNARD WALD COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES
Lot 254

A LARGE WHITE JADE 'RED CLIFFS AND WEIQI GAME' SNUFF BOTTLE
1750-1850

17 March 2025, 09:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$14,080 inc. premium

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A LARGE WHITE JADE 'RED CLIFFS AND WEIQI GAME' SNUFF BOTTLE

1750-1850
Of bulbous rounded square shape, one side carved in low relief with three seated figures and a standing oarsman in a boat in a nighttime visit to the 'Red Cliffs' with gentle waves below and an overhanging pine, a crescent moon and rockwork above, the reverse side with two scholars playing weiqi with a standing straw-hatted figure watching nearby under pine, blow a short waisted neck with flat rim and regular mouth and well-hollowed interior, supported on a short foot with flat oval foot rim and very slightly convex base.
2 1/2in (6.3cm), high, stopper

Footnotes

1750-1850 白玉刻「赤壁之戰」及對弈圖鼻煙壺一件

Provenance:
Ning (Dick) Wang, Beijing, 2003

來源:
王寧,北京,2003年

When the Song dynasty literatus Su Dongpo (1037-1101) was first sent to Huangzhou in exile for opposing reformist policies at court, he passed by the supposed site of the naval battle of the Red Cliffs (208 AD) during the Three Kingdoms period. It was here, purportedly, that that the powerful northern warlord Cao Cao was defeated by Liu Bei, virtuous scion of the Han dynasty, who dreamt of reuniting China but ultimately failed. Su wrote two poems on the Red Cliffs commemorating the valor and bravery of the historical heroes that fought in the battle long past, while also voicing his own sense of nostalgia and loss. His poems have since entered into the Chinese literary canon and are a continuously popular motif for artists and poets; see R.Egan, Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi, Cambridge MA, 1994, pp.221-228.

Scholars in a boat under a crescent moon depicts the night excursion at the Red Cliff.

For s Suzhou Chalcedony agate with a very similar scenes with two figures playing weiqi to one side and figures in a boat to the other, see Robert W. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1987, pp. 110-111, no. 154

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