Beschreibung:

Lot details Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價 Expert’s note: Although unsigned, this bottle can be confidently attributed to the master glass carver Li Junting, one of the most important and innovative of all Qing glass artists, also one of the very few we can identify by name. Li's bottles are among the finest of the low-relief works of the school he headed, believed to have been at Yangzhou, and this superb example is no exception. Dated Yangzhou bottles are rather rare, but have been recorded with dates between 1819 and 1822. Inscriptions: To one side on the shoulder, dated to the Year of Renwu (corresponding to 1822), and to the other side with the seal ‘Zhengye’ (good luck). Of flattened spherical form, finely carved through the ruby-red outer layer to the milky-white ground to one side with two boys stirring a pot, above scattered sprigs, a tea kettle, and a cup, below an inscription on the shoulder giving the cyclical date, the reverse with a boy holding up a branch and kneeling beside a recumbent water-buffalo pulling a tethered melon, with butterflies hovering above and a seal Zhengye, the shoulders carved with fruiting double-gourd sprays. Provenance: Collection of Margaret Polak, California, USA. Robert Kleiner & Co. Ltd., London, United Kingdom, 2007. A private collection in the United Kingdom, acquired from the above. A copy of the original invoice from Robert Kleiner & Co. Ltd., dated 2 July 2007, confirming the attribution to Li Junting above, and stating a purchase price for the present lot of GBP 5,500 or approx. EUR 13,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies this lot. Margaret Polak was a passionate collector of Chinese snuff bottles. She wrote articles for the Journal of the ICSBS, and part of her collection was exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1991. In 2006, she gifted parts of her extensive snuff bottle collection to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Robert Kleiner (1948-2014) was an important expert of Chinese snuff bottles, beginning his long career at Sotheby’s in London. Along with Hugh Moss and Bob Hall, he became a key advisor to the Mary and George Bloch collection, and it was Robert who wrote and produced the very first catalog of their bottles. Condition: Pristine condition with only minor wear and minuscule manufacturing irregularities. Stopper: Jasper Weight: 23.7 g Dimensions: Height incl. stopper 62 mm, Diameter neck 13 mm and mouth 7 mm Please click here to read the full description Literature comparison: Compare a closely related snuff bottle attributed to Li Junting, illustrated in Hugh Moss, Victor Graham, and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 5, Glass, no. 1035. Compare two snuff bottles attributed to Li Junting from the J & J Collection, nos. 402 and 403, illustrated by Moss, Graham, and Tsang in The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, Vol. 2. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s New York, 21 March 2002, lot 35 Price: USD 17,625 or approx. EUR 27,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: A rare and finely carved red overlay white glass bottle, Li Junting, attributed to Yangzhou, 1805-1825 Expert remark: Compare the closely related form as well as the near-identical colors, with ruby-red overlay on milky-white ground and similar manner of carving. Note the identical size (56 mm, measured without stopper). Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Christie’s New York, 17 September 2008, lot 12 Price: USD 11,875 or approx. EUR 15,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: A finely carved red overlay white glass snuff bottle, Li Junting, attributed to Yangzhou, 1800-1840 Expert remark: Compare the related form, similar boy motif, and manner of carving. Note the size (59 mm) and the slightly different colors, not allowing as