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Chinese Snuff Bottle Discussion Forum 中國鼻煙壺討論論壇
March 28, 2024, 09:39:25 am
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My second jet bottle!

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Wattana
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« Reply #20 on: June 01, 2017, 10:03:04 pm »

Inn Bok,

Wow! That puts an entirely new perspective on this bottle! As you may know, it was originally in the Bloch Collection, and there is considerable commentary about the inscriptions in the publications covering that collection, and who may have written them.
 
You will find the details here:
 http://snuffbottle.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,2068.msg26242.html#msg26242

The possibility that it was a tablet later transformed into a bottle is new to me, and most intriguing!
The dull appearance seems to have more to do with the quality of this particular type of jet, rather than the polishing. In fact for many years the experts thought the bottle was made of carbonized wood.

Tom
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Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司
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« Reply #21 on: June 02, 2017, 07:14:51 am »

Dear Tom,

  In your description below, you wrote that neither scholar could have inscribed the calligraphy attributed to him;
but based on the overlap between his dates (1687–1763), and the possible period of manufacture (1750–1900), Jin Nong could well have done his own, at least. And I would date the bottle to ca.1740-1800. It is so scholarly and 'Shibui'.  It could have been made later, of course, but its elegance and austerity suggest to me the earlier period.

   The suggestion that the bottle was made by cutting up a personal tablet of the scholar, and that it is his original calligraphy, is very interesting indeed. Would the tablet have been thick enough? I confess ignorance.
Joey

I 'copied' the following from your other post (I didn't know how to transfer from one thread to another in any other way):

This was the third and last of the black bottles acquired last year, which I only recently got in my hands. It completes my 'black trio' of 2013 (far right side). 

Description:
    An inscribed jet snuff bottle of rounded rectangular form, with a cylindrical neck, flat lip, and recessed flat, elongated-oval foot surrounded by a protruding flat footrim; engraved on one main side with an inscription in seal script followed in running script by ‘Jin Nong made this to amuse himself when he was an old man after returning to his native place from the capital’, and on the other, in more cursive running script, with a poetic inscription followed by ‘Composed by Zhucha, Zhu Yizun’.  Stopper of peach-stone or olive-pit, carved with three figures; gilt silver collar. It was lacking a spoon, so I added that recently.

Height w/o stopper:  6.7 cm   
Tentative dating:   1750–1900

Commentary:
    Almost all jet used for Chinese snuff bottles is pure black, and can be polished to produce a high gloss finish, as seen in the last example I posted, where it was pointed out that the material was most likely imported from central Asia and beyond including, possibly, England. A duller type of jet can be found in China, which has a more metallic lustre, and does not take a polish very well. 
    Both sides of this bottle are incised with calligraphy, and both somewhat intriguing. I understand that the inscription on one side claims to be by Jin Nong 金農  (1687–1763), one of the famous Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, whose name was often added to fakes.  But he had a distinctive style – he liked cutting his brush at an angle to produce calligraphy whose Western counterpart would be that of an italic pen on paper: strokes that are fat in one direction and thin in other. Fakers invariably copied that feature, which would be easy enough to reproduce on this jet bottle, but the temptation to do so seems to have been resisted. 
    I am told the other side bears a two-line extract from a work by an earlier scholar and poet, Zhu Yizun 朱彞尊  (1629–1709), entitled ‘Rowing Song for Mandarin Duck Lake’, purportedly incised on the bottle by him.
    From their dates alone neither of the two inscriptions can have been carved by the hand of the scholars mentioned, since the bottle is certainly of a later date. Whoever did the carving appears to have added the inscriptions out of reverence for these two scholar poets, rather than any attempt to deceive. But we may never know for sure! 

 
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Joey Silver (Si Zhouyi 義周司), collecting snuff bottles since Feb.1970

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« Reply #22 on: June 02, 2017, 09:37:36 am »

Tom,

I was not commenting on the dull appearance on the faces of the bottle. Rather I was looking at the abrasion on the shoulders of the bottle. These lines appear to me to be newer addition to the original dull look of the main body. Thus I speculated that the bottle was formed from a palm-size tablet which already had the inscribed Chinese characters.

Inn Bok
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« Reply #23 on: June 03, 2017, 10:43:25 am »

What an interesting concept that Tom's bottle might have been a stone tablet!

With such great provenance already, it seems likely to me that it could be by the original hand.

I do hope that you are able to find out more on further investigation, and hope you will keep us informed to follow your progress!




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« Reply #24 on: June 03, 2017, 01:35:35 pm »

I am following along as well, and truly very interesting indeed !
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