AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS BOTTLEZhou Leyuan Signed and dated renchen year corresponding to 1892 Painted with a continuous mountain river landscape with boats, figures and buildings; stopper. 2 1/8in (5.5cm) high 壬辰年（1892） 周樂元 玻璃内畫山水人物鼻烟壺 Provenance: A Private Collection, Connecticut Michael C. Hughes LLC, New York, 4 December 2013 來源： 康州私人藏品 紐約Michael C. Hughes LLC古董行，2013年12月4日 Much has been written about Zhou Leyuan who is widely acknowledged as the single most influential artist working in the inside-painted medium. Zhou founded the popular Beijing School of painting. Every artist of the first phase of the school owes a debt to him and they include Ding Erzhong, Ma Shaoxuan, Ye Zhongsan, Ziyizi, Sun Xingwu and Yan Yutian amongst others. According to Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, part 1, Inside Painted , Hong Kong, 2000, p. 93, no. 465, his earliest dated bottle, with calligraphy only, rather than painting, is dated 1879. The majority of his dated bottles, however, seem to span the years 1881 until 1893, making this a late work. For further discussion of his work and an earlier bottle, dated 1884, and painted with a similar scene but in a darker palette, see Hughes, The Chester Beatty Library , Dublin, Chinese Snuff Bottles, Baltimore, 2009, pp. 256-257, no. 198. For an inside-painted smoky-crystal example with birds flying amidst trees see Christie's, New York, The Meriem Collection, 19 September 2007, lot 609 and another glass example, also dated 1892, sold at , New York, 9 September 2019, lot 104. A landscape crystal bottle of the same year was also sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Part IX, lot 25.