Washington Area Snuff Bottle Group

[DCist]

So, I went to the first snuff bottle meeting in the DC area in about 15 years (they meet more often, I just never got an invitation after that first meeting that I attended.)  We were asked to bring our latest snuff bottle purchases or snuff bottles with a Spring theme.  My wife graciously looked over the collection and picked out an inside painted bottle with a bird and lotus leaves.  I arrived at the meeting and there were several other collectors there - a gentleman from Pennsylvania (Tim H.?), the Dorfs, M. Bozzo, our hosts Hugh and Rosemary Henry-May, Kim and Jeff Green and some others. 

We had a nice presentation on the Qiang Long (SP?) Emperor by a visiting professor from Johns Hopkins.  It was a good presentation, short and to the point.  Then I discovered that only one other person had brought any snuff bottles to share - I never saw any from the hosts even.  At any rate, the professor translated the bottle I brought and told me that it said something about Spring and dark.  I should photograph it and let Steven translate it for me!  The gentleman from Pennsylvania said that it appeared to be a Yan Yutian snuff bottle with typical lotus leaves of a bottle that he knew of.  So, I learned something today.

[DCist]

One other thing, Kim Green, who is the ICSB Secretary reported that the New York convention will be at the Waldorf Astoria - where the convention was held previously.  The Metropolitan Museum will put their bottles on display for the first time in ages and they will have bottles from the Museum of Natural History and some other museums - the display doesn't open until the first week in November so that is when the convention will be there.  Interestingly the Metropolitan divested some of their bottles a few decades ago, and no one really knows what they have in their store rooms.

Portland was discussed too, the hotel is the Nines - an upscale Sheraton.  There will be no exhibits at the Portland Museum, but there will be a bus ride to Salem - an hour or so away, for a snuff bottle display.

[rpfstoneman]

Ted,

Thanks for the DC perspective.  We also heard much of the same information about the Portland and New York Conventions from Berthe Ford and Kim Green at the joint Northern/Southern California spring meeting in LA last Saturday.  Had a lecture on contemporary Chinese art by Christina Yu Yu from the LA Country Museum of Art and a lecture by Claudia Brown, Professor of Art History at Arizona State, on Snuff Bottles in the Arts of the Qing Dynasty.  It was a general ICSBS meeting of about 30 members in attendance, follow by a ICSBS Board Meeting.  Dealer present were Claire Chu, Bob Lee, Erick Schiess, and Susan Page was there on behalf of Robert Hall.  David Quinn also was present displaying the last installment of the John W. Sinclair bottles which are coming to action on June 9th.   This was an all day event and a good, informative meeting, but attendance was rather low.   This was only my second joint meeting.  Attendance in San Francisco last year was a little better.   

Charll

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Ted & Charll,
    Thanks for all the updates. My term on the Board ended on the 28th.April, while I was in Budapest. And since Israel Independence Day ended Thurs. night 26th, I couldn't have realistically got to LA for a Sat., meeting, even if I would do business on Shabbat.
   Incidentally, the spelling for the emperor's reign-title is 'Qianlong' in Pinyin, 'Ch'ien Long' in Wade-Giles, and you were totally correct, it is properly 'the Qianlong Emperor' (NEVER 'the Emperor Qianlong').
   Best to all, Joey

[DCist]

I was interested to read in the current Journal that so many from the DC area are now on the Board - Ted Dorf and Kim Green, and of course I know Barbara Dicker, although she now lives in Florida.  At any rate, Kim reported that there will not be a combined East Coast - West Coast meeting next year.

Thanks Joey for the correct spelling of Qianlong - I seem to have picked some amalgamation of the two systems - and ended up being completely off - good thing you followed my train of thought.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Ted,
   No problem. I was able to figure it out, because I did exactly the same thing when I first learned pinyin, and tried to amalgamate it with Wade-Giles.
   I still have a problem ( Just see my 'Jingdezhen' fiasco in my 1987 catalogue, where the Jiaqing Imperial mark and period enamelled porcelain snuff bottle is described!).
  Best, Joey