The Maxwell Collecti
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Robert Hall Robert Hall Acknowledgements Assistant to the author: Susan Page Design: Gemma Hall Production: CA Design, Hong Kong Photography: Robert Hall Photography Translations: Oliver Lough P.2 2 P.3 INTRODUCTION We are delighted to be able to exhibit the In forming this collection, we have tried to between collectors. I have read many letters various palaces and dwellings in order to send This exhibition of the Maxwell Collection has Maxwell Collection for the members of the find bottles that provide a broad spectrum of written by Bob Stevens to fellow enthusiasts. their ill-gotten wares back for the appreciation been planned together with this catalogue to International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society in the materials and styles. These bottles have been He was a court reporter and a man of brain of the West. Then the Japanese occupation celebrate the International Chinese Snuff Bottle beautiful J. J. Lally & Co. Gallery in New York. acquired around the world, and the pursuit and wit with the most impossible obsession for was another opportunity to plunder treasures. Society’s 2013 annual convention in New York has given us both, the collector and myself, snuff bottles. But one can sense his frustration Having said that, if the items had been left in City. This remarkable collection has been formed over great pleasure. Cataloguing, publishing and with the slow postal system between Japan, China, there might be fewer bottles around due the last fifteen years or so. Forming collections I would like to thank James Lally for his exhibiting them has also been most gratifying. London, California and Hong Kong. It would to the destruction of works of art in the Cultural these days is a very exacting experience and immediate and positive response when I take weeks and weeks for letters to be received Revolution. difficult, in that certain categories of snuff bottles Whenever I have had a more than passing approached him regarding the possibility of and comments returned. Now there are many are not readily available. The mainland Chinese role in the formation of a collection, I have The dispersal of Chinese works of art means exhibiting this collection in his gallery. Actually, publications and, of course, the internet. are buying back these precious miniature felt a certain reluctance to publish; it seems that the world has been made aware of I am humbled by Jim’s belief in me and my objects from the world which acquired them so final and even likely to put a full stop to The energy and commitment that collectors these extraordinary objects which were made abilities. from the mid-19th century onwards. I would any further collecting. But publications by from mainland China are showing are powerful, either in the official kilns and workshops, or by I owe the greatest debt of gratitude, however, suggest that within another five or ten years, dealers, museums, collectors, and auction and within not too many years there will be myriad private artists and craftsmen. Western to the owners of the Maxwell Collection. They there will be few genuine old snuff bottles on the houses are providing a strong platform for very few worthy Chinese works of art left in understanding and knowledge of Chinese art set out to buy only the finest examples in each market at all. They are rapidly being acquired future understanding of the subject. When I the Western world except for a few private are exemplary; we have many experts who are field and were willing to commission me to buy by the offspring of the very people for whom first began to learn about snuff bottles under collections and those works that reside safely very well regarded in this field. In fact, there are the best. It has been fun working with them as they were originally made. As China grows the gentle stewardship of Hugh Moss, there in the compounds of Museums. The market is many who are highly respected by the official they have always proved receptive and shared economically, the patronage of art and the were few publications giving any information voracious and there are many agents stalking gamekeepers in China who have really been my delight in the pursuit of the finest. So it is with field of collecting will increase and snuff bottles, at all, let alone comparative material to help this planet hunting good works for their own allowed to pursue the study and connoisseurship great satisfaction that I present to you here the easily transportable and delightful to hold, will make valid judgments. The internet, emails and or for their bosses’ enjoyment and investment. of their art only since the end of the Cultural Maxwell Collection. once again be objects to be admired and attachments weren’t invented at that time, and China must feel aggrieved (and rightly so) for Revolution in 1968. China is moving ahead given as gifts amongst collectors. so photographs and typed and handwritten the atrocities performed by our allied troops very swiftly and surely, though the market is still Robert Hall letters were the means of communication when the opium wars presented opportunities plagued by fakes and copies which will, in turn, October 2013 to rob and pillage the Forbidden City and confuse the very people who wish to learn as quickly as possible. P.2 2 The Maxwell Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles 3 P.3 Glass P.4 4 P.5 1 Glass, overlaid with a single layer of This extraordinary bottle, with its very rare yuzhi mark, predominance of floral motifs, colours intentionally translucent ruby-red, emerald-green, golden- raises the question of the significance of that mark. blended into one another, and a detailed style yellow, semi-translucent pale yellow, and pink and It would seem that under the Qianlong Emperor glass resulting in a busy, textured surface. There is another turquoise-blue, on an opaque white ground with production flourished. The Emperor commissioned bottle in the Bloch Collection (Moss, Graham, Tsang, small, scattered, air bubbles; carved in the form of new workshops to experiment with designs, and A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, No. 989 which has an eggplant, with a rounded, circular lip; the calyx ordered that those he liked be marked yuzhi (‘By flowers as decoration. Another bottle, formerly in that resembling a band of plantain leaves, carved Imperial Command’). In this case, the carving style collection (Robert W. L. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles with a continuous design of nine gourds falling relates this bottle to a group of multi-coloured single from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. resplendently from leafy vines, with a flower and overlays datable to the second half of the Qianlong 122) was culled because of damage. bat, the base inscribed in seal script with the mark period. Evidence from the archives indicates that The eggplant form of this bottle represents fertility. Qianlong yuzhi (‘Made by Imperial command of several bottles were commissioned by the Qianlong Because of its numerous seeds, the double gourd is a the Qianlong Emperor’). Emperor to test a carver’s skills and, after approving symbol of good fortune and fertility. The combination it, ordered more of the same design but without the Imperial Palace Glasswork, 1760-1799 of gourds and tendrils zisun wandai forms the rebus yuzhi mark. One other bottle, in a private collection ‘ceaseless generations’ or ‘may you have numerous Stopper: glass, carved as a calyx in Florida, is almost identical to this although lacking descendants’. Height: 8cm the reign mark but can only have come from the Provenance: The Rogers Collection, Toronto same workshop. This is one of the most spectacular examples of the (Mr Ernest Rolph, Toronto (b. 1871 d.1958 John The group is characterized by the use of certain group and one of only a very McKeggie Rogers, Toronto d.1976, started colours – including some rather alarming few bearing the yuzhi mark. collecting in the 50’s) Thence John Rogers’ combinations of bright pink and turquoise blue – the daughter, Toronto) P.6 6 The Maxwell Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles P.7 2 Glass, the translucent pinkish-brown material 3 Glass, transparent and colourless, the low 6 Glass, the pear-shaped bottle with a of miniature octagonal form, with raised squat body blown and polished into an protruding footrim, the neck flared to a wide panels at the front and reverse forming a central octagonal cross sectioned form, both faces with mouth. peak; the bottle with an elongated neck and four-facets rising to a summit. Beijing Glassworks, Qianlong period, 1736-1795 resting on a flat foot. Beijing Glassworks, Qianlong period, 1736-1795 Height: 5.5cm Beijing Glassworks, Qianlong period, 1736-1795 Provenance: Beijing Provenance: Beijing Height: 3.1cm Height: 2.9cm Provenance: Beijing 7 Glass, translucent deep mauve, of miniature Published: Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles XII, 4 Glass, almost cylindrical, pale translucent octagonal form, with raised panels at the ‘A Must-Have Accessory’, Chinese Snuff Bottles purple, the body rounded and tapering to the front and reverse forming a central peak; the bottle from our Autumn Collection, no. 60 flat foot, the neck slightly flared to the mouth. with an elongated neck and resting on a flat foot. Faceted forms derive mostly from European stylistic Beijing Glassworks, Qianlong period, 1736-1795 Beijing Glassworks, Qianlong period, 1736-1795 and technical influence during the early years of the Height: 6.9cm Height: 3.1cm Beijing Palace glassworks which were set up in 1696. Provenance: Beijing Published: Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles XII, At that time, the workshops were under the direction ‘A Must-Have Accessory, Chinese Snuff Bottles from of the Jesuit missionary, Killian Stumpf, and there is 5 Glass, the translucent deep pink metal of our Autumn Collection, no.