AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
Zhou Leyuan, 1892
Of flattened, rectangular form with a cylindrical neck and a neatly carved oval footrim, painted on the inside using ink and watercolors with on one main side fish swimming in a lotus pond under lotus leaves, flowers and grasses, the reverse with a mountainous landscape with a fisherman wearing a straw cape and carrying his rod over his shoulder, crossing a wood plank bridge between leafy trees growing from grassy banks, signed Zhou Leyuan with one red seal, and dated; stopper.
2 1/2in (6.5cm) high
Footnotes:
壬辰年（1892） 周樂元 玻璃内畫「連年有余」鼻煙煙一件
《周樂元》款

Provenance:
Robert Kleiner, October 1989
Joan and Ted Dorf Collection, no. 13

Zhou Leyuan did not use a copybook, unlike Ye Zhongsan and Ma Shaoxuan, with the consequence that his compositions tended to be freer and livelier even when, as a commercial artist, he repeated the same subject matter. This is a standard, but highly appealing subject for his later years. Painted within the last two years of his career, the calligraphy reflects a less broad, more angular style than he used in his early years. It is evident that Zhou's painting style at this time was a huge influence on both Ye Zhongsan and Ma Shaoxuan, although it is Ye's work that more steadfastly owes its allegiance to Zhou's painting. Many of the bottles painted by Ye Zhongsan with Zhou's signatures are accompanied by the date 1892, perhaps as a tribute to Zhou in his later years.