AN AMBER INSIDE-PAINTED SNUFF BOTTLE Signed Zhou Leyuan, cyclically dated to the Renchen year corresponding to 1892 and of the period The golden-amber bottle painted in the interior on each side with a mountain scene, one side with a pavilion and a lone figure on a boat, the reverse with two scholars on a mountain path, with calligraphic inscription, signature of the artist and cyclical date, jadeite stopper. 6.8cm (2 5/8in) high. (2). 注脚 1892年 琥珀內畫鼻煙壺 「壬辰臘月作於京師藕香齋周樂元」款 The influence of Zhou Leyuan on snuff bottle paintings of the Beijing school is significant, and the present lot encapsulates some of his particular traits. One of them is Zhou's use of natural markings in the material to enhance the painting: in this case a smoky mist in the mountains. Zhou Leyuan also did not use a copybook, unlike Ye Zhongsan and Ma Shaoxuan, with the consequence that his compositions tended to be freer and more dynamic even when, as a commercial artist, he repeated the same subject matter. H.Moss, V.Graham and K.B.Tsang wrote that 'Zhou Leyuan is the pivotal artist of the late Qing dynasty'; see A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection vol.4, part 1, Inside Painted, Hong Kong, 2000, p.90. Although numerous examples of Zhou Leyuan's inside painted snuff bottles exist in glass, amber appears to be a rare material for him to have used. See, however, related motifs of landscapes by Zhou Leyuan on inside painted glass snuff bottles, illustrated in Ibid., nos.466, 468, 472, 473, 476, 477, and 481.