Robert Hall Chinese Snuff Bottles XV THE SB COLLECTION THE SB COLLECTION CH INESE SNUFF BOTTLES XV www.snuffbottle.com [email protected] ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Author: Susan Page Photography: Robert Hall Photography Translation: David Hong & (Harry) Hao Liu Paul Bevan Richard John Lynn Professor Emeritus of Chinese Thought and Literature University of Toronto Produced by: Asia Marketing Design THE SB COLLECTION Have you ever met anyone in your life who brings joy In the 1960s Madame B moved to Hong Kong and there and colour when she steps into a room? Somebody who her passion for snuff bottles was really ignited. She was may turn up in a rain hat (clear plastic, or in later days, a a careful housewife and juggled her budget to buy the smart reversible Burberry -- because it does always seem best bottles she could. She collected many porcelain to rain in London) but when the rain is shaken off, and the examples, not only because they were more affordable for umbrella put to one side, the sun is shining. her, but also because she delighted in the stories they often illustrated. Given her interest in porcelain, two particular Do you know someone who has that overall sense of bottles catch the eye: the two bottles in the form of Chinese beauty in form and shape but who also loves detail and scrolls, recording how porcelain is manufactured, (no the narrative in a story-telling piece of art? 22 and no 25). These are both very rare and in good condition and highly sought after. She had an eye for I do, and that person is the owner of THE SB COLLECTION. detail and took pleasure in the tiniest nuances of a bottle’s pictorial and narrative fine points. She also enjoyed the Madame B grew up in Brussels and had a comfortable, way an artist carved an agate bottle, creating a design if somewhat over-protected, childhood in smart society. from the different colours in the material. And she loved She was tutored at home, with time off for riding lessons, the colour and translucence of glass bottles: plain bottles tennis, and seaside holidays at her family’s villa. She to some, but she saw beauty in their form and colour and could have lived a quiet, conventional, gilded existence in the way, when grouped together, the colours danced with her family until marriage, but she chose instead to together and created their own dynamic. take a history degree, an unusual step for a woman at that time. She recalls difficult years during the Second Having settled in England, Madame B continued collecting World War. Her father, a Belgian Air Force Officer, snuff bottles and friends. She filled her days playing tried to escape Belgium via France to join the RAF but bridge, (she was a Life Master of the English Bridge Union) was captured before reaching England and endured three and meeting with her fellow countrymen as a member of years of hard labour. As a young woman Madame B the Council of the Anglo Belgian Association. She was joined the Red Cross and began the many friendships that also a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office were to continue into her later years. Association of the South East. She would search out local auctions and antique fairs, and also frequently visited our Life took Madame B to the Far East and it was in 1954 in shop in Clifford Street, London to satisfy her collecting Singapore that she purchased her first snuff bottle. How pastime. Madame B kept her treasures in boxes, but did her passion for collecting originate? I have spoken they were often brought out to be handled, looked at and with her daughter who recalls that her mother always admired. encouraged her and her brother to join in the fun of collecting: at first, it was tropical shells on the beaches, We hope to have created with this catalogue not only then butterflies in the jungles of Malaysia. Her daughter a record of her collecting days, but also a tribute to her says, ‘It was a great way to open our eyes to the wonders brightness and joie de vivre. of the world and at the same time sharpen our eye for pattern and colour.’ Susan Page Robert Hall February 2011 1 Glass, translucent sapphire-blue, the sides carved with mask-and-ring handles, on a protruding, oval footrim. 1780-1850 Height: 7cm 2 Amber, root amber of pebble form, carved with Meng Haoran riding a donkey, followed by his assistant carrying blossom, the reverse with a scholar seated on a boat passing beside a waterfall which flows into a turbulent sea. 1780-1850 Height: 5.2cm 1 2 3 Glass, overlay of blue, pale green and yellow carved with a fish curled on a wave, the reverse with a yellow peony and lush green leaves. Beijing Palace Glassworks, Qianlong, 1736-1795 Height: 5.8cm 4 Carnelian, deep orange surrounded by white crystalline material and carved with a swirling cloud design. 1780-1850 Height: 5.5cm 5 Porcelain, painted in famille rose enamels, one side with a walled city, the 4 other with a harbour, the base with an iron-red coiled dragon. Jingdezhen, 1796-1850 3 Height: 7.3cm Published: Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles X, The Button Collection, no 18 6 Glass, layers of opaque and translucent turquoise-green, the lateral sides carved with mask-and-ring handles. 1780-1850 Height: 6.3cm 6 5 ITEM 1 - 6 Nephrite, the ochre skin carved with Liu 7 Hai and his three-legged toad, the other side with a figure in a sampan carrying a peach, with another figure in a swirling cloud above. 18th Century Height: 6.4cm 8 Glass, a layer of swirly pink, green and white between layers of translucent pale green glass. 1780-1850 8 Height: 5.7cm 7 9 Porcelain, rounded form with flattened sides, painted in famille rose enamels with Meng Haoran on a donkey in search of prunus blossom, the reverse with his attendant taking blossom from a tree, the foot inscribed in iron-red seal script Daoguang nian zhi (‘Made during the Daoguang Period’). Jingdezhen, 1821-1850 Height: 5.4cm 10 Burlwood, well patinated material resting on a protruding oval footrim. 1780-1850 Height: 7.3cm 9 11 Lapis lazuli, of rectangular form resting on an oval footrim. 10 1780-1850 Height: 6.2cm 12 Glass, pale turquoise, of rounded form on a dimpled base,with a wide mouth. 18th Century Height: 6cm 13 Glass, blue, of rounded form with pink and maroon splashes and traces of aventurine. 1780-1850 12 Height: 6.3cm 11 13 ITEM 7 - 13 14 Porcelain, of pebble shape, painted in 17 Glass, imperial yellow, of triangular form famille rose enamels with a grasshopper resting on a dimpled base. on a leaf, the reverse with a cicada. Imperial Glassworks, Beijing Jingdezhen, 1821-1850 Qianlong, 1736-1795 Height: 6.2cm Height: 5.7cm 15 Glass, imitating realgar, carved as a 18 Glass, translucent peacock-blue, of finger citron. elongated form resting on a protruding, oval footrim. 1730-1780 Height: 6cm 1780-1850 Height: 6.2cm 16 Glass, opaque white with incised inscriptions in panels on front, reverse 19 Mother-of-pearl, carved with panels and lateral sides. containing a dragon and a pearl, the other side with a bat surrounding a shou 1780-1850 medallion, the sides with mask-and-ring Height: 6.1cm handles. 14 15 The lines are a poem by Wang Shipeng 1780-1850 (1112-1171) entitled Wangyue tai Height: 5.3cm (Terrace to View the Moon). A bright pearl spat out far away 20 Porcelain, of tall cylindrical form, painted from the head of a reclining dragon in underglaze-blue with a dramatic tall pine tree in an idyllic mountain landscape, Gradually seems a flash of pure light floating a yriadm miles away. and a fisherman seated on a sampan, whilst his assistant holds a net, the base When people look up to you, make sure with concentric rings. they look to you as they look at the moon Jingdezhen, 1796-1850 You must always appear like a mirror and Height: 10.3cm never like a hook. ( The ‘bright pearl’ is the moon, and the ‘reclining dragon’ is the outline of a 17 mountain range seen against the evening sky. The ‘head’ of the dragon is the summit of the range. ‘Spat’ describes how 16 the moon appears suddenly from behind the mountains. As a mirror reflects so an upright, compassionate, and responsive official ‘mirrors’ the hopes and concerns of the people under his jurisdiction; he never should seem like a ‘hook’, a crescent, not full moon, which implies mean-spiritedness. That is, he should never seize them by a hook, never treat them harshly, never exploit them). The two lateral sides read: A marvel outside the human world. Lies in the midst of the sky. (The ‘marvel’, is the moon). 19 18 20 ITEM 14-20 21 Lac-burgauté, embellished with figures in 25 Porcelain, moulded in the form of a scroll a garden near a pavilion, the other side and painted in black and iron-red enamels with a blossoming tree. with a figure carrying baskets towards a water wheel in a mountainous landscape, Japan, 19th Century one side with a lengthy inscription which Height: 6.6cm has extended passages from the book Jingdezhen taolu by Lan Pu first published in 1815, specifically here from the first 22 Porcelain, moulded in the form of a chapter Quni (Collecting Clay). scroll, painted with enamels depicting the 23 process of making porcelain cups, one Jingdezhen, 1850-1920 side with a lengthy inscription which has Height: 7.5cm 22 extended passages taken from the book Jingdezhen taolu by Lan Pu first published Similar Example: Moss, Graham, Tsang in 1815, specifically here from the Treasury, no 1411 second chapter Xiumo (Mould making).