Auspicious Symbolism

Yan Yutian, Chongwen district, Beijing, 1898–1918
Height: 4.5 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.42/1.20 cm
Stopper: carnelian; vinyl collar

Provenance:
Robert Hall (1989)
Bloch Collection
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 26 November 2013, lot 155

Published:
Moss, Graham, and Tsang 2000, no. 619
Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent, The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection of Snuff Bottles. Part Two, Non-Imperial Influence over the Snuff Bottle Arts.

Exhibited:
Christie's, London, 1999

Glass, ink, and watercolours; with a flat lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding, rounded foot rim; painted on one main side with two scholars seated in conversation and a third one on his own in adjacent open thatched pavilions built on stilts in the shallow waters of a river, beneath a hillock growing with trees, a waterfall visible in the distance, the other main side with three katydids on a convoluted rock formation with flowers beyond, signed in draft script Yutian 玉田, with one seal of the artist, Yutian, in negative seal script.