Message #36419

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Peter,

      Yes I do remember the Song Yiming swimming carp bottle. It is wonderful.
Do you remember that I could not see most of the beauty in your collection because the sheer mass of over 300 snuff bottles overpowered my ability to look?

      I needed you to remove bottles one or two at a time, so I could enjoy viewing them at your dinner table.

      Unless you are a mind reader (and I doubt you are), you DON'T know why the gentleman keeps his painting collection secure and takes out only a few to view at a time.

      I prefer to think that he is refined, and follows the scholarly Chinese system of focusing on one beautiful artwork at a time, and giving it one's undivided attention, then replacing it in its box or pouch, before bringing out another beauty to admire and learn from.

     This is how YF Yang taught me to appreciate my snuff bottles. He prefers his bottles in individual boxes, but compromised with me that I get 10-bottle boxes, so I see 10 at a time (He first suggested I get 5-bottle boxes, but understood the storage aspect as well; though possibly 5-bottle boxes actually might have facilitated storage even better than 10-bottle boxes. ).

     But as you say, to each his own.
You feel free to follow the crass Western and Modern Chinese 'Nouveau Riche' style of displaying all one's wealth at one time, and I will continue to follow the refined, classic Chinese scholarly way of displaying only a few treasures at a time, so each can get the attention they 'deserve'.   

    And I hope my friendly criticism will not offend, as yours did not offend me.
Best,
Joey