Inside Painted Bottle - Calligraphy Only

[liam]

Hi Everyone,
Here's a photo of my favorite snuff bottle. I'm a stark raving beginner to collecting and know nothing about this piece. Any opinions would be greatly appreciate. Thanks in advance!
Liam

[George]

I have noticed that many bottles with lengthy script like this have been short poems. Not to say that is what this caligraphy is, but maybe !

There is a thread here talking a little about bottles like this one that have a this kind of brownish coloring. Some believe that the painting and or scripts are likely prints rather than actually painted.

I hesitate to suggest that this may likely be a rather inexpensive souvenir type bottle.

Don't let my humble opinion take away from it being one of your favorite bottles..  What is important is that you find it "enchanting and love it dearly" !

Thanks for sharing it 

[Jeff]

  What is important is that you find it "enchanting and love it dearly" !

Exactly !

[Clare]

Caligraphy just by itself is beautiful to look at. It truly is a form of art.

I like your bottle Liam 

[liam]

Thank you, everyone, for the feedback and info. I'm having fun getting the text translated. Every Chinese speaker I've asked so far agrees that the large character on the front means prosperity/good fortune etc. The text on the back reiterates this thought, and seems to translate into a poem of good wishes for prosperity, abundance, health, etc. for one's household, family and others, and ends with the thought that after bad times come the good, as spring follows winter. Evidently the top two characters of the far left column indicate a date. So far I've not been able to find a source that can tell me what that is exactly. Ditto for the red artist's chop.

My father bought snuff bottle in 1971 at a shop in Honolulu called Treasures of the East. The shop went out of business in the '90s. Other than that I know nothing of the provenance. Dad was an avid collector of Chinese export porcelain, mostly Canton and Nanking. He also collected Japanese Imari. it was unlike him to buy a reproduction knowingly.

Browsing the internet of course yielded a plethora of examples -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- of snuff bottles. There are those many obvious fakes (even to my untrained eye), poorly done inside painted with a brownish yellow background that apparently is meant to look like tobacco stain. The background paint in my bottle is more of a muted mustard yellow without the brown "tobacco" tinge.

I finally took photos of the other two bottles. I'm equally in love with them. But again, I'm pretty much in the dark as far as knowing anything about them. I'll post those pictures in a bit.

Again, thank you everyone! So glad the forum exits.
Liam