China, 1890. Finely painted in pale watercolors and black ink to one side with lotus blossoms and leaves blowing in the wind below a short inscription and to the other with a scholar’s rock, a vase with flowering prunus branches, a jardinière, and a kettle.

Inscriptions: To one side, ‘Yinxiu shanfang Zhuren qingshang Gengyin shouxia Zhou Leyuan you’ (Curiosity by the scholar of the Yinxiu Shanfang Studio). In the summer of Gengyin year [corresponding to 1890]. Zhou Leyuan). One large seal.

Provenance: From an old English private collection, acquired in China during the early 20^th century and thence by descent to the last owner.
Condition: Excellent condition with only minor old wear and some manufacturing imperfections to the glass.

Stopper: Mottled green and brown jade.
Weight: 30.7 g
Dimensions: Height including stopper 60 mm. Diameter neck 15 mm

The flattened, rounded and rectangular body supported on an oval spreading foot and rising to a cylindrical neck.

Zhou Leyuan is the founder of the popular Beijing school of painting. His career spanned the period 1881 to 1893. Every single artist of the first phase of the school owed a considerable debt to Zhou, and most began their careers by copying his style and signing his name. Some even devoted most of their careers to producing copies of his work. Hugh Moss has described Zhou Leyuan as “the single most important artist in the entire field of inside-painted snuff bottles”.

Expert’s note: There is always evidence of Zhou's compositional brilliance in his mature works, exemplified here, where the lotus blowing in the wind is perfectly balanced with both the inscription, in Zhou's fluent and elegant calligraphy, and the large seal. The placing of the lines of calligraphy forms a vertical counterpoint, together with the seal, to counteract the void left by the dispersed lotus. In Chinese painting, which, in its mature phase from the Song/Yuan period onwards, incorporates what became known as the 'Three Perfections' (poetry, calligraphy and painting) in a single artistic expression, the seals act both as lexical content and as calligraphy and, as such extend the function of the calligraphy itself, but apart from that they also allow an additional formal element, their bright vermilion acting as a counterpoint to the black of the calligraphy and the blank space of the surface to which they are added. In this case, to extend the vertical element of the calligraphy, it was necessary to use a larger seal on the lower left side. These rare larger seals are mostly confined to Zhou's middle period. Later, particularly after 1890 and until he ceased to paint in 1893, his compositions became more complex, often filling the available space to a greater extent, reducing the need for larger seals to balance sparser compositions. A similarly sophisticated compositional elegance is exhibited on the other side, where we find Zhou’s favorite subject of auspicious and scholarly objects, neatly arranged, but without any calligraphy or inscription whatsoever.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams Hong Kong, 25 May 2011, lot 109
Price: HKD 84,000 or approx. EUR 13,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An inside-painted glass ‘auspicious objects’ snuff bottle, Zhou Leyuan, dated 1888
Expert remark: Compare the similarly painted scholar’s rock and vase with prunus branches.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Bonhams Hong Kong, 24 November 2012, lot 11
Price: HKD 312,500 or approx. EUR 48,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An inside-painted glass 'crane and landscape' snuff bottle, Zhou Leyuan, dated 1892
Expert remark: Compare the similarly sophisticated interplay between the bamboo growths, the rock, the moon, the calligraphy and the large seal on the backside of this bottle with the front side of the present lot.


周樂元内畫鼻烟壺
中國，1890年。腹部兩面繪製，淺色水墨設色精心繪製，一面是荷塘，另一面繪以博古圖為主題，可見花瓶、盆景及香爐等物，其瓶中插梅，寓意清雅高潔。

款識：飲秀山房主人清賞，庚寅首夏周樂元作

來源：英國私人老收藏，二十世紀初購於中國，在同一家族保存至最後一任主人。
品相：狀況極佳，只有輕微的磨損和玻璃的一些製造缺陷。

壺蓋：玉
重量：30.7克
尺寸：含蓋總高60毫米，頸部直徑15毫米

鼻烟壺扁瓶式，平口，口微敞，溜肩，直壁，橢圓型圈足。

周樂元是京派内畫鼻烟壺的創始人，主要活動於1881年至1893年。很多藝術家都曾學習過周先生的風格。 有些人甚至一直模仿他的作品。Hugh Moss將周樂元稱為“整個內畫鼻烟壺領域最重要的藝術家”。

專家注釋：這見鼻烟壺就是一個見證周樂元精妙作品極好的例子，設色以墨色為主，以淡彩作點綴，風中的荷花與周樂元流暢筆法和書法以及印章的結合，這樣的詩、書、畫融合在一個作品中的藝術表現形式可回溯到宋代，景物格調高雅；畫面古樸精緻，淡雅雋逸。特別是在1890年之後，直到他在1893年停止創作，他的作品經常在更大程度上填充可用空間。同時，我們也發現了周最喜歡的吉祥書畫題材，排列整齊，但沒有任何書法或銘文。

拍賣結果比較：
形制：非常相近
拍賣：香港邦瀚斯，2011年5月25日，lot 109
價格：HKD 84,000（相當於今日EUR 13,500）
描述：玻璃內畫清供圖鼻烟壺，周樂元，1888年作
專家評論：比較相似的內畫的文人石和插梅瓶場景。

拍賣結果比較：
形制：相近
拍賣：香港邦瀚斯，2012年11月24日，lot 11
價格：HKD 312,500（相當於今日EUR 48,500）
描述：1892年周樂元玻璃內畫梅妻鶴子圖鼻烟壺
專家評論：比較此壺背面的竹子、石頭、月亮、書法和大印，與現拍品的正面相比，類似的複雜場景相互輝映。