Snuff bottle: The Scholar's Scrapbook

1898?

Chinese, active ca. 1899 - 1939

This snuff bottle is painted on the inside with an elaborate rendering of a scholar’s collection of cherished artistic objects, dearly appreciated and treasured even though damaged. The folding fan with floral motif is signed with the sobriquet of painter and Ming dynasty loyalist Yun Shouping. Often included are quotidian itmes that display utilitarian writing, such as on the envelope here. The tiny collage comprises various imperfect specimens: a “burnt” book cover of volume one of the Four Confucian Classics; a “torn” rubbing of a Tang dynasty stone stele; a raggedy “fragment” of Tang poet Meng Haoran’s poetry.

Rock crystal with inside painted

2 11/16 x 11/16 x 1 3/4 in. (6.8 x 1.7 x 4.5 cm)

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection

33.937

two views

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Pure Amusements: Wealth, Leisure, and Culture in Late Imperial China, Dec. 24, 2016 - May 15, 2022.

Published ReferencesCammann, Schuyler, Chinese Inside-Painted Snuff Bottles and Their Makers, in The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 20 No. 1/2 (Jun 1957), p.295-326.

Berliner, Nancy. The 8 Brokens. Boston: MFA Publications, 2018; p. 94, reproduced fig. 18.

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