An inside-painted glass 'bird and landscape' snuff bottle


Signed Zhou Leyuan, cyclically dated to xinmao year corresponding to 1891Of flattened rectangular form, meticulously painted in ink and colours depicting a long-tailed paradise flycatcher perching on a blossoming prunus tree, the reverse with a fisherman punting a boat below an inscription signed Zhou Leyuan, stopper. 6.3cm (2 1/2in) high. (2).
|1891年 周樂元 玻璃內畫綬帶鳥紋鼻煙壺Provenance:A distinguished Asian private collection來源：亞洲顯赫私人收藏Zhou Leyuan (active 1882-1893) is one of the most important artists in the field of inside-painted snuff bottles whose immense influence exerted over all the artists who followed him up to the 1960s.The delicate painting style and the colour palette applied in the present lot can be compared to two examples of an inside-painted glass bottle with a similar composition of bird and landscape by the same artist, illustrated by M.C.Hughes, The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin: Chinese Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong, 2009, p.259, no.200; and another from the Paul Braga collection, which was sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 24 November 2012, lot 11. The subject of a fisherman in a boat on the reverse is similar to one from the Mary and George Bloch collection, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26 November 2013, lot 33.周樂元活躍於1879至1893年間，為內畫鼻煙壺的代表性人物，對後人影響甚廣。參考另一件周樂元內畫鼻煙壺的例子，同樣以花鳥為題材，見M.C.Hughes，《The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin: Chinese Snuff Bottles》，香港，2009年，頁259，編號200；另對比一件Paul Braga舊藏鼻煙壺，售於香港邦瀚斯，2012年11月24日，拍品編號11。本壺之漁夫紋飾與瑪麗及莊智博夫婦舊藏一例類似，售於香港蘇富比，2013年11月26日，拍品編號33。