Slip of the Pen
Zhou Leyuan, Lotus-root Fragrance Studio, Xuannan, Beijing, probably circa 1885-1887
Height: 6.88 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.77/1.45 cm
Stopper: aquamarine; silver collar
Provenance:
Dr & Mrs Louis E. Wolferz
Sotheby's, New York, 3 November 1982, lot 257
Sotheby's, London, 3 March 1987, lot 156
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, November 1997, lot 2187
Private Japanese collection
Bonham's, Hong Kong, 21 May 2009, lot 1077
Published:
Arts of Asia, 17/4 (July 1987)*
Qiu Donglian 邱東聯 (2000), Zhongguo gudai biyanhu mulu 中國古代鼻煙壺目錄 [A catalogue of old Chinese snuff bottles] (Haikou: Nanfang chubanshe), p. 208, top left.
Colourless glass and watercolours; with a concave lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding convex foot rim; painted on the inside on one main side with a willow tree growing from a grassy bank beside a body of water with minnows swimming in it, a dragonfly above and a cicada clinging to a branch of the willow, and on the other with a group of literati trappings (a perforated, grassy natural rock sculpture, a covered incense burner with a natural root knob on the cover, a shallow jardinière set on a tall stand with a blossoming miniature prunus tree growing in it, a tall, crackle-glazed sleeve-shaped pot with lingzhi in it, and another jardinière with acorus grass), inscribed in running script with a dedication, Pinweng fazheng 品翁法正 (‘For the corrections of Pinweng’), with one seal of the artist yin印 (‘seal’), and a separate inscription Guiwei shouxia fa Nantian biyi Zhou Leyuan zuo癸未首夏法南田筆意, 周樂元作 (‘Made by Zhou Leyuan following the brush-style of Nantian in the Fourth Month of the guiwei year’), with the same seal of the artist, yin印 (‘seal’)
