Footnotes

• Treasury 7, no. 1477
  
  竹光素鼻煙壺
  
  Bulbous Gentleman
  
  Bamboo; well hollowed, with a flat lip and concave foot
  1760–1880
  Height: 6.89 cm (including original stopper)
  Mouth/lip: 0.71/1.23 cm
  Stopper: bamboo with integral finial, collar, and cork; original
  
  Condition: surface well patinated and with a pattern of scratches and abrasions from use; otherwise, workshop condition
  
  Provenance:
  Mrs John Sheafe Douglas (no. 587)
  Private collection, California
  Chinese Porcelain Company, New York (1992)
  
  Published:
  Chinese Porcelain Company 1992, no. 77
  Kleiner 1995, no. 337
  Treasury 7, no. 1477
  
  Exhibited:
  British Museum, London, June–October 1995
  Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July–November 1997
  
  Commentary:
  With its generous form, sumptuous patination, and rare original matching stopper, this is unquestionably one of the masterpieces of plain bamboo snuff bottles. It is well hollowed and has as rich a patination as may be found on any bamboo snuff bottle. With many organic materials, it is often difficult to judge to what extent the colouring is due to original staining and to what extent it is natural patination through use. We suspect this bottle was originally stained, but the richness of the surface texture owes a great deal to subsequent handling and polishing.
  
  Remarkably, it has retained its original stopper. The collar overlaps the diameter of the neck, providing much easier removal. Although we modern snuff-bottle collectors tend to match precisely the diameter of the collar (or stopper, if no collar is present) to the diameter of the lip, a slight overhang facilitates grasping the stopper. The projecting collar would not work visually on all shapes, but it works on some. Another bottle from the same workshop, of similar but slightly narrower form and with a similar original matching stopper, was in the Ko Collection, Christie's, London, 8 November 1976, lot 184. This type of stopper is of typically imperial shape, with its integral finial and collar, which may indicate an imperial origin. But courtly taste in stoppers must surely have affected taste elsewhere, so the existence of an imperial type of stopper need not necessarily indicate an imperial product.
  
  Despite all of this speculation as to the bottle's original status, it remains one of the most beautiful, formally satisfying, and well patinated of all surviving plain bamboo bottles. It is also of a rare form, with its unusual portly shape.
  
  此君身子胖墩墩的
  
  竹；掏膛完整，平唇，凹底
  1760～1880 年
  高：6.89 厘米 (包括原件的蓋)
  口經/唇經：0.71/1.23 厘米
  蓋：竹；原件
  
  狀態敘述：
  表面古色斑爛。此外，出坊狀態
  
  來源:
  Mrs John Sheafe Douglas (編號587)
  私人珍藏，美國加州
  Chinese Porcelain Company，紐約 (1992)
  
  文獻：
  Chinese Porcelain Company 1992, 編號77
  Kleiner 1995, 編號337
  Treasury 7, 編號1477
  
  展覽：
  大英博物館, 倫敦, 1995年6月～10月
  Israel Museum, 耶路撒冷, 1997年7月～11月
  
  說明:
  這是無紋竹鼻煙壺的傑作，也帶原蓋。關於古今人對蓋的不同習俗和民間與宮廷蓋的異同問題，請參閱本壺英文的說明。