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Lot Essay
Ye Bengqi is justifiably famous for his faithful recreations of Imperial enameled glass wares, particularly snuff bottles. He would memorize the patterns of authentic enameled glasswares on display in the Palace Museum in Beijing and attempt to replicate them in the family's Apricot Grove Studio. In early 1974, shortly before his death, Ye Bengqi admitted in an interview with Hugh Moss to producing perhaps thirty to forty copies of "Imperial Palace" enamels between about 1925 and 1940; he also identified a number of published and photographed works shown to him at the time as his own. He is known to have painted a group of bottles between 1958 and the early 1960s while teaching his pupil Wang Xisan. Ye's copies are so impressive, that for half a century they convinced experts all over the world that they were genuine Qianlong products; and conversely, genuine examples, some of which are not as technically proficient, were subsequently questioned. Today Ye's works are treated as masterpieces in their own right.
For a lengthy discussion of enameled wares produced by the Ye Family in Beijing, see H. Moss, "The Apricot Grove Studio, Part III: Enameled Glass Wares," Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Baltimore, Autumn 1985, pp. 116-30. See, also, Moss, Graham and Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, pp. 352-3, no. 205 for a discussion of Ye Bengqi's talents as a copyist. For more recent updates on Ye's works, see also Hugh Moss, "Mysteries of the Ancient Moon," Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Baltimore, Spring 2006.
Another outstanding example of Ye's work on a bottle of similar tapering, high-shouldered form, from the Meriem Collection, was sold in these rooms 19 September 2007, lot 620.
For a lengthy discussion of enameled wares produced by the Ye Family in Beijing, see H. Moss, "The Apricot Grove Studio, Part III: Enameled Glass Wares," Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Baltimore, Autumn 1985, pp. 116-30. See, also, Moss, Graham and Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, pp. 352-3, no. 205 for a discussion of Ye Bengqi's talents as a copyist. For more recent updates on Ye's works, see also Hugh Moss, "Mysteries of the Ancient Moon," Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Baltimore, Spring 2006.
Another outstanding example of Ye's work on a bottle of similar tapering, high-shouldered form, from the Meriem Collection, was sold in these rooms 19 September 2007, lot 620.