AN EXTREMELY RARE ‘CELESTIAL EYE’ REVERSE INTAGLIO AGATE SNUFF BOTTLE, 1750-1850

Attributed to the Cameo Ink-play Master, possibly Imperial, Official School
China, 1750-1850

This bottle is the only example known to this author that is entirely executed in reverse intaglio, meaning that the design is carved completely INSIDE THE BOTTLE in reverse technique. In other words, there is absolutely no carving on the outside of the bottle and hence no relief whatsoever is visible or perceptible outside the bottle as well.
The reverse intaglio technique here was derived from ancient Roman gem carving, where it became popular because the Roman cameo gems were flat and therefore convenient to access for the carver, and so the technique was simple to execute and the stunning effect easy to achieve. In the case of the present bottle this is absolutely not the case, because the carving had to be executed exclusively through the mouth, which – to add further complexity – is extremely small.
Celestial eye goldfish or Choutengan in a pond were a popular motif during the Qing dynasty. Yet they seldomly appear on agate bottles, possibly because it may have been difficult to capture their appearance in a both natural and realistic manner. Here, two of them are shown swimming in a pond, with the plants solely consisting of natural inclusions in the stone, whereas the fish themselves are partially carved and partially consisting of natural inclusions.
This bottle is part of a small sub-group of the Official school that represents the height of both chalcedony carving and ink-play agate in the snuff-bottle field and, therefore, in the whole of Chinese history, since the snuff bottle was both the last imperial fling and the epitome of so many art forms. This carver may have had his own workshop, but he also appears to have worked for the court and possibly at the palace workshops or some other imperial facility. The palace workshops were often staffed with artists co-opted from private workshops around the country and the honor of working for the emperor was rarely turned down. He was dubbed the Cameo Ink-play Master by Moss, Graham and Tsang because all of his recognizable works are cameos to some extent, and yet he also managed to combine his varied relief work using different colors in the material with some of the most imaginative and masterly ink-play works in the entire medium. Yet no other work by him executed solely in the reverse intaglio technique is known to this date.
This bottle bears all the master's hall marks. It is superbly made and hollowed and of an intriguing and exciting material. It is also well realized with masterly technique, but above all it is his extraordinary use of the natural markings in the material which sets it apart and identifies it as one of his creations. The transparent agate has striations running through it which the artist has aligned vertically and diagonally as framing decoration of considerable power, leaving the natural planes of color in the stone to one main side only, where they were, together with several darker and lighter ‘ink drops’, perfectly interpreted as a pond with all its natural details. It is a masterly ink-play agate and, like many of the finest, perfectly integrates minor yet clever editing of the colored areas, in this case the fish eyes, the contours of the tails and some of the blossoms surrounding the fish.
It also has another common feature of this master's works: a high gloss finish. Intriguingly, when one compares the plain areas of this bottle with many others of the Official school, there seems to be no difference in polish, and yet a high gloss is the remaining impression one gets from most of his works. It would appear to be an illusion set up by the extraordinary perfection of intaglio reverse carving, finishing and polishing of the carved details inside the bottle that gives the feeling of an even higher gloss than normally.
The Cameo Ink-play Master preferred no particular shape, allowing his ink-play as much freedom as possible. Where there is decoration, he lets the form follow the dictates of the markings in the stone. Here the shape is probably prompted by the vertical banding on the edges to the narrow sides, positioned slightly off-center to balance the depiction at the front, which required a fairly large bottle with a continuous, even contour and no foot rim to avoid any visual conflict with the powerful vertical and diagonal banding as well as the many larger and smaller ink drops.

Shape: Bulbous round form
Hollowing: Superb
Mouth, neck and lip: Short, slightly waisted neck with convex top, extremely small mouth and slanted lip
Base: Oval recessed base with slanted foot rim
Stopper: Large coral cabochon with a Russian 1912 50 Kopeck (half Ruble) coin as collar and associated silvered metal spoon
Height of the bottle with stopper: 8 cm.
Width of the mouth: 6 mm.
Width of the neck: 25 mm.
Weight: 66.3 grams without stopper (very light for a bottle of this size, due to extreme hollowing) and 94.4 grams with the stopper (the stopper alone weighs about half of the bottle!)
Condition: Perfect
Provenance: From the collection of Mary Ann Edmondson Bresee, Georgia, USA, avid collector and former member of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society. Her grandfather was Walter T. Candler, son of Asa G. Candler, the founder of the Coca-Cola Company. Her bottles were exhibited both at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens and the Norton Museum of Art.

Literature comparison: For other examples by this master, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, Treasury 2, nos. 320–325 and for the one from the Prince Ding Collection, Treasury 2, no. 362, where it is grouped with other bottles bearing the prince's hall name. There was another sold in China (China Guardian, Beijing, 21 October 1996, lot 1932) and a more obvious example from the J & J Collection is illustrated in Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, no. 156. Others are illustrated in Moss 1971, nos. 145, 147 (the J&J fish) and 148, and in Sotheby's, New York, 22 September 1995, lot 150. It now seems possible that the green relief chalcedony, no. 211 in Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993 (better illustrated in color in Stevens 1976, no. 520) may be from the hand of this master whose works are linked as much by technique and genius as by any predictable style. No. 521 in the same publication may also be by him. One more example, definitely by the master and decorated with a five-clawed dragon which, from the mid-Qing period implies an imperial product, remains as yet unpublished (Hugh Moss personal records). The bottle with the five-clawed dragon also has a distinct flat upper neck rim of typical palace style. This is a very unusual feature on any Official school bottle and may indicate that the Cameo Ink-play Master worked, for at least part of his career, at the palace workshops.

極稀有金魚眼反雕刻瑪瑙鼻烟壺，1750-1850
或爲瑪瑙墨戯大師所制，官家工坊
中國，1750-1850
這件鼻烟壺是目前所知存世唯一一件反雕瑪瑙作品，即完全壺内雕刻技術。換句話説，壺外光素，完全沒有任何雕刻。
這裡的反雕内刻技術源自古羅馬寶石雕刻，因其平滑便於技師雕刻，並且易於實現令人驚嘆的效果，因此流行。而這件鼻烟壺卻絕對不是這種情況，因為反雕必須完全通過嘴部，這進一步增加了複雜性。
在清代，池塘中的天眼金魚曾是一個流行的主題。 然而，它們很少出現在瑪瑙瓶上，可能是因為很難以自然和逼真的方式捕捉它們的外形。 在這個壺内，兩條金魚在池塘中游水，水草蕩漾，它們部分雕刻而出，部分是因爲天然肌理展示。
這件鼻烟壺展示了官家工坊的一小組墨戯瑪瑙作品的一個領域。在整個中國歷史上，鼻煙壺也可以説是最後的帝國及其多種藝術形式的縮影這為大師可能有他自己的工坊，但他似乎也曾在御用工坊或其他機構工作過。御用工坊也經常和來自民間工坊的匠人合作，這些匠人很少會拒絕邀請而放棄為皇帝工作的榮譽。Moss, Graham 和Tsang 曾在書作中介紹過這位墨戯瑪瑙大師，因爲他所有可識別的作品在某種程度上都是浮雕，并且他可以利用材料不同肌理色調與浮雕相結合，以其特別的想象力製造出墨戯的效果。然而，那時他的其他作品如反向雕刻技術中還未出名。
這個鼻烟壺帶有他的主人的所有技術特徵。 它製作精良，掏膛完整，材質迷人。精湛的技術更好地展示這一切，但最重要的是它利用了材料中的自然肌理與色調，使它與眾不同並將其成爲為他的創作標志之一。透明的瑪瑙及其天然條紋，它具有垂直和對角綫具有相當大的框架裝飾作用，石頭中的自然色彩成爲另一個主側面，在那裡它們與幾個深深淺淺不同的墨水滴完美地詮釋著一個擁有自然細節的池塘。這是一件技術精湛的墨戯瑪瑙，與許多機精美的瑪瑙一樣，完美地融合了細微的有色區域。在這種情況下，魚眼，魚尾的輪廓和魚周圍的一些花朵都圍繞在金魚的周圍。
它還有這個大師作品的另一個特點：高光澤度。有趣的是，當它與其他官家工坊出品的作品相對比時，拋光似乎沒有區別，但高光澤度仍是他大部分作品給大家留下的印象。 在瓶子裡面，有一種比平時更高光澤的感覺。
這位墨戯瑪瑙大師并不特別著重於某一個特別的形狀，他盡可能讓他的墨戯自由發揮。 在有裝飾的地方，他讓形態遵循石頭中標記的指示。這裡的形狀可能是受到邊緣上垂直綫條的提示，略微偏離中心以平衡前面的描繪，這需要連續且均勻的輪廓和沒有底足，用强大的垂直和對角線條帶以及許多大大小小的墨滴來避免任何視覺衝突。

壺型： 圓形
掏膛： 機完整
壺口、頸與唇部：短頸，微微翹起，壺口平面，極小口，撇唇
底足： 橢圓形凹陷，圈足
壺蓋： 大珊瑚，托片為俄羅斯 1912的 50 科佩克幣（半個盧布），鍍銀杓壺高（含壺蓋）：8 厘米
口徑： 6 毫米
壺頸寬： 25 毫米
重量： 66.3 克 不含蓋（對於一件這個尺寸的鼻烟壺來説是非常輕的，説明它掏膛非常極緻）和 94.4 克 含蓋（蓋的重量就已經是壺的一半）
品相： 完美
來源：美國喬治亞州 Mary Ann Edmondson Bresee收藏，狂熱的收藏傢，曾是國際中國鼻烟壺收藏協會會員。她的祖父是Walter T. Candler，Asa G. Candler的兒子，可口可樂公司成立人。她的鼻烟壺曾在the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens美術館及the Norton Museum of Art美術館展出過。

文獻比較：這位大師的另一個相似作品可見 Moss, Graham, Tsang, Treasury 2, nos. 320–325 以及來自the Prince Ding Collection, Treasury 2, no. 362, 與其他鼻烟壺組成一組沿用親王堂名，（在中國嘉德拍賣拍出，1996年10月21日， lot 1932) 以及另一件來自 J & J Collection更加明顯的例子登錄于Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, no. 156。另外可參考Moss 1971, nos. 145, 147 (the J&J fish) 與 148，及Sotheby's, New York, 22 September 1995, lot 150。還有綠色浮雕玉髓 ，目錄號 211， Moss, Graham 和Tsang 1993 (Stevens 1976, no. 520顔色更爲逼真) 可能是出自這位大師之手，從技巧以及天才來看。同一本書中的No. 521 也可能是來自于他。還有一件絕對是這位大師風格的來自清中期御用品五爪龍卻還沒有出版 (Hugh Moss 個人記錄). 五爪龍鼻烟壺的頸部也同樣有著御用風格的平坦邊緣。這與官家工坊出產的鼻烟壺不同，表明是某位墨戯大師所出，至少是他在皇家工坊工作期間。