Choosing A New Snuff Bottle Book ?

[George]

I do not have much of a collection.. Only two books so far.

Lilla Perry, and Bob Stevens.

Would like to add a new book or two from time to time as well as the bottles to my collection.

1) My first learning and collection choice are older inside painted bottles/artists.

2) Second choice for a book reference would be stone type bottles.

3) Followed by the desire to collect and have book references for overlay bottles.

With the above in mind, would anyone like to comment on or suggest a book ar two that are specific to the above categories of bottles ?  I would like to get the most bang for my buck by purchasing books jam packed with information specific to my start up collecting interests.

I am sort of thinking about purchasing books specific to artists. Like Ma Shaoxuan would be a good starting point. Although these books are expensive, it seems a good route to go buying specific references to specific artists.

 

[richy88]

It is true that both Bob Steven and Lilia Perry books are quite 'dated' as they are some of the earlier titles on the subject. Also, it is inevitable that there are some mistakes in the content as first, they do not read Chinese and some of the information gathered are probably second hand. However, they still made excellent read and are not too 'technical' making them suitable for the new collector.

While there are quite a number of books on snuff bottles these days, most of them are catalogue-like of one's collection which is fine but there are not many that published on a specific subject or topic. Here are some of my suggestions from my own library:

For older inside painted bottles, there are 2 books available:

1. Inkplay In Microcosm: Inside-painted Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Humphrey K F Hui Collection
2. A Treasure Of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary & George Bloch Collection Volume 4: Inside Painted (this consists of 2 books which formed part of the Bloch's collection which have 7 volumes in all. However, you can purchase each volume separately)

For stone bottles, here are my suggestion:

1. A Treasure Of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary & George Bloch Collection Volume 1: Jade
2. A Treasure Of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary & George Bloch Collection Volume 2: Quartz
3. A Treasure Of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary & George Bloch Collection Volume 3: Stones Other Than Jade And Quartz
4. Chinese Snuff Bottles Of The Silica Or Quartz Group

For glass and glass overlay bottles:

1. A Treasure Of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary & George Bloch Collection Volume 5: Glass

Again, for specific inside painted artist, there are not many titles in the market, some of them as follows:

1. Inside-Painted Snuff Bottle Artist - Ma Shaoxuan
2. The Art Of Liu Shouben: Inside-Painted Snuff Bottles Of The Beijing School
3. A Collection Of Wang Guanyu Inside-Painted Snuff Bottles

Hope this helps.


Richard

[richy88]

Oh, I left out one more title for the inside painted bottle book:

Reflected Glory In A Bottle - this book focus on portrait painting on inside painted bottles and mostly black and white photos.

[George]

Thanks for taking the time to post these Richard.

I found Reflected glory in a bottle: Chinese snuff bottle portraits at an affordable 20.00 price.

I did find a copy of Inkplay In Microcosm: Inside-painted Chinese Snuff Bottles for 111.00

Still looking up the others.

There is an auction going on today that I forgot to request approval to bid on some books.  I am going to give them a call as soon as my cell phone finds its way home and see if I can get approved for todays bidding.