AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLEAttributed to Ziyizi Circa 1900-1907 Of rounded rectangular shape with unusually sloping shoulders, one main face painted in subdued hues with a portrait of a beardless man (or possibly a youth) wearing a close fitting cap, set within a dark-ground oval, the opposite side painted with bronze and ceramic vessels with flowers clustered around a mossy rock, indecipherable seal below; stopper. 2 5/8in (6.6cm) high 1900-1907 傳自怡子 玻璃内畫人物肖像及清供圖鼻烟壺 Provenance: White Wings Collection Robert Kleiner, The White Wings Collection, 8 January 1999 Literature: Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles, The White Wings Collection , Hong Kong, 1997, pp. 270-271, no. 188 Exhibited: International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria, New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 79 For an example of an almost identical un-deciphered seal on another Ziyizi bottle, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles,The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part 2, Inside Painted , Hong Kong, 2000, p. 486, fig. 6. For a portrait bottle by Ziyizi in which the same format of an oval medallion with a darker ground to silhouette the sitter, see Moss et. al. ibid., pp.484-485, no. 624. His earliest bottles show an obvious debt to Zhou Leyuan and are evidenced here by the reverse side of this bottle depicting vessels, rockwork and flowers. For another example with bronze vessels and rockwork on one side, see Humphrey K.F. Hui, Lai Suk Yee and Peter Y.K. Lam, Inkplay in Microcosm, Inside-painted Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Humphrey K.F. Hui Collection , Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002, no. 23.