Visit to The Red Cliff
Zhou Honglai 周鴻來, Hangzhou, late 1896 or early 1897
Height: 7.04 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.57/1.16 cm
Stopper: glass, carved with a coiled chi dragon, with integral collar
Provenance:
Private Hong Kong collection
Treasure Auction, Hong Kong, 24 December 2005, lot 855
Robert Hall, January 2006
Published:
Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent, The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection of Snuff Bottles. Part Two. Non-Imperial Influence over the Snuff Bottle Arts.
Colourless glaze on porcelain; with a convex lip, flat foot and convex foot rim; engraved on one main side with Su Shi seated at a small, low table in an open boat beside his friend, who is playing the flute, as they float beside a reedy bank beneath the Red Cliff, inscribed above in running script with a dedication, Zixi renxiong daren yawan, Yanbin zuo子翕仁兄大人雅玩, 鴈賓作 (‘For the elegant enjoyment of Elder Brother Zixi, made by Yanbin’) and one seal of the artist, Zhou周, the other main side engraved with a seal that has successfully resisted interpretation, followed by Guangxu bingshen ji dong lu Qian chibi fu yizhang 光緒丙申季冬錄前赤壁賦一章 (‘Recording a section of the first Rhapsody on the Red Cliff in the Twelfth Month of the bingshen year of the Guangxu era’), by the text itself, and then by Yanbin zuo yu Lin’an Zhongsu guli 鴈賓作於臨安忠肅古里 (‘Made by Yanbin at Zhongsu’s old neighborhood of in Lin’an’) and one seal of the artist, Zhou 周.
