AN INSIDE-PAINTED HAIR CRYSTAL 'FISH' SNUFF BOTTLE, BY YE ZHONGSAN, DATED 1916 China, the bottle 1740-1860, the painting 1916. Of slightly flattened form, the ovoid body supported on a flat foot and with a broad cylindrical neck. Well painted with fish swimming amid aquatic fronds, the stone suffused with slender black tourmaline needles suggestive of reeds.

Inscriptions: To one side, signed 'Ye Zhongsan' and dated 'In the Autumn of the Year of Bingchen' (corresponding to 1916). One seal.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 5 December 1983, lot 190. A British private collection, acquired from the above, and thence by descent in the same family.
Condition: Very good condition with minor old wear, few minuscule nicks, the stone with natural imperfections and fissures, some of which may have developed into small hairline cracks over time. The stopper has been replaced since the bottle was at Sotheby's in 1983.

Stopper: Aventurine and mother-of-pearl
Weight: 43.2 g
Dimensions: Height including stopper 70 mm, Diameter neck 15 mm and mouth 7 mm

From about 1904 onwards, Ye Zhongsan began to take advantage of what we may presume to have been a weakening market for old snuff bottles in the wake of the gradually dying interest in snuff in favor of smoking cigarettes and the political turmoil that attended the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and the collapse of the Qing dynasty, which would follow in 1911. We suddenly see a reasonable number of old agate and crystal bottles where the markings in the material are imaginatively used as the basis for ink-play paintings. Two examples in agate are illustrated in JICSBS, Autumn 1982, p. 35, figs. 83, 83a, 84, and 84a, the former a chalcedony bottle with a natural design of a fish in darker markings where Ye has painted further fish in a pond to augment it, and the latter a banded agate, where Ye has again added his painting to interpret and define the markings in the stone. For the present bottle, Ye has cleverly used the needle-like crystals of tourmaline as reeds, providing his fish with a naturalistic environment.

It is quite remarkable that it took until the turn of the century for any inside-painted artists to realize the potential in painting inside such materials that were, after all, readily available and, it would seem, crying out for such treatment. It was Ye Zhongsan's use from the early years of the present century onwards that defined this particular branch of the art, and it remained his prerogative throughout his career, being adopted only occasionally by other artists, including Zhou Leyuan. This again seems strange, since once the idea was established, we might have expected other artists to respond more enthusiastically to it. But of course such initial enthusiasm may well have been impeded by the increased challenge of integrating one's personal artwork into an already existing natural environment.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams Hong Kong, 23 November 2010, lot 52
Price: HKD 72,000 or approx. EUR 12,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An inside-painted 'hair-crystal' snuff bottle, Ye Zhongsan, dated 1905 (the bottle 1740-1860)



1916年葉仲三内化發晶《魚戲圖》鼻烟壺
中國，鼻烟壺為1740-1860年，内畫為1916年。壺體扁平，直頸，溜肩，收腹，橢圓形圈足。内畫水中魚戲。水晶内泛著細長的黑色針紋，讓人聯想到蘆葦。

款識：丙辰仲秋葉仲三作，一印

來源：1983年12月5日倫敦蘇富比 lot 190；英國私人收藏，購於拍賣，在同一家族中保存至今。
品相：狀況極好，有輕微磨損，少量細小的刻痕，水晶有天然的瑕疵和裂縫，隨著時間的推移，其中一些可能已經發展成細小的裂縫。壺蓋可能於1983年在蘇富比拍賣時被替換過。

壺蓋：砂金石與貝母
重量：43.2 克
尺寸：總高70毫米，頸部直徑15毫米，壺口直徑 7毫米

大約從 1904 年開始，人們對鼻煙的興趣逐漸消失，轉而吸煙。葉仲三是當時京派內畫鼻烟壺的大師之一，他所繪的鼻烟壺雅俗共賞，著稱於世。他喜歡用鮮豔的色彩畫花鳥人物，筆力嚴謹，畫風蒼勁有力，對人物的神態刻意求工，生動形象。其繪畫流暢生動，顏色塗染規整均勻，讓人不敢相信是繪於內壁之中。1911 年，葉仲三發現可以利用瑪瑙和水晶等材料自然紋理用於水墨畫作。值得注意的是，到了世紀之交，內畫藝術家意識到使用這種材料的潛力，而且此類材料很容易取得。正是葉仲三從本世紀初開始，使用並定義了這一特殊的鼻烟壺藝術分支。兩個瑪瑙鼻烟壺可參見JICSBS，1982年秋季，第35頁，圖 83、83a、84 和 84a，前者是玉髓瓶，帶有天然的魚紋，顏色較深，葉仲三在池塘中畫了更多的魚以增加嬉戲場景；後者是帶狀瑪瑙，葉仲三再次添加了他的畫突出石料的天然紋理。此鼻烟壺，葉仲三巧妙地將發晶中的碧璽的針狀晶體用作蘆葦，為他的魚提供了一個自然的環境。

拍賣結果比較：
形制：非常相近
拍賣：香港邦瀚斯，2010年11月23日，lot 52
價格：HKD 72,000（相當於今日EUR 12,500）
描述：1740-1860年髮晶金玉滿堂鼻煙壺，1905年葉仲三畫