AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS ‘FISH AND INSECTS’ SNUFF BOTTLE

Although Zhou repeated subjects, he never repeated compositions, every single bottle being re-thought as a work of art, unlike most of his contemporary artists who were largely decorative and repeated both subjects and compositions frequently.

This is the form the subject generally takes in these later years, with the grassy bank wrapped around the bottle, but this is an early version of the classic subject.” Of flattened form, the rounded rectangular body supported on a rimmed oval foot, rising to a slightly flared cylindrical neck with a flat lip. Powerfully painted bold rocks next to a meandering stream with some celestial eye goldfish and a catfish, and buzzing dragonflies and beetles above.

Inscription: To one side, signed ‘Zhou Leyuan’ and dated ‘In the first Autumn month of 1890’. One red seal, ‘Yuanyin’. Locke, inherited from the above and thence by descent. EUR 8,800 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies this lot.