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Lot Essay
Although unsigned, this bottle can be confidently attributed to the master glass carver, Li Junting, believed to have worked at Yangzhou and one of the most important and innovative of all Qing glass-carvers - also one of the few we can identify by name. The name Jianhou was the zi of the Qing poet Wang Yujia, suggesting that this bottle was made for his personal enjoyment.
For a blue-on-white version of a similar subject, also by Li Junting, from the collection of Count Blücher von Wahlstatt, see H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, London 1971, p. 107, no. 193. For another similar subject, also in red on white, signed by one of Li Junting's alternative names, Weizhi (not Weishi as given in the catalogue), see G. Tsang and H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1978, p. 127, no. 241; see, also, nos. 242 and 243, for further examples of the master's work (all three are dated sixty years too late, as was thought to be correct at the time). See, also, B. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, nos. 239-240 and 242-251 for a range of Li Junting's works, five of them in red on white. And, for further examples from his hand, see R. Kleiner, Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect: Chinese snuff Bottles for the Collection of Denis Low, Singapore, 1999, nos. 125-132.
For a blue-on-white version of a similar subject, also by Li Junting, from the collection of Count Blücher von Wahlstatt, see H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, London 1971, p. 107, no. 193. For another similar subject, also in red on white, signed by one of Li Junting's alternative names, Weizhi (not Weishi as given in the catalogue), see G. Tsang and H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1978, p. 127, no. 241; see, also, nos. 242 and 243, for further examples of the master's work (all three are dated sixty years too late, as was thought to be correct at the time). See, also, B. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, nos. 239-240 and 242-251 for a range of Li Junting's works, five of them in red on white. And, for further examples from his hand, see R. Kleiner, Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect: Chinese snuff Bottles for the Collection of Denis Low, Singapore, 1999, nos. 125-132.