An ink-stone snuff bottle

1800 – 1880
Height: 5.8 cm.

Ink-stone, of flattened shield form with a short and narrow cylindrical neck and recessed foot, carved in low relief on one side with three bats and scrolling clouds, the reverse incised with two lines from the famous poem Mountain Villa on an Autumn Evening 山居秋暝 by Wang Wei 王维 (701–761):
明月松間照 Among the pines bright moonbeams peer
清泉石上流 Over the rocks flows water ever so clear

The bottle is sealed Written by Chance 偶書, meaning that the author inscribed the two lines just as the thought arose in his mind.

Bats and clouds form the rebus "May you have good fortune or luck." See Terese Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meaning in Chinese Art (San Francisco: 2006), no. 1.1.3.

Provenance 起源: Linda F. Crawley

Published 发布: Asiantiques, A Fascination for Miniatures: The Linda F. Crawley Collection of Chinese Snuff (2008), cat. no. 20

Ref. 815646

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