AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE
Ye Family, 1935
Of rectangular form with a cylindrical neck and a neatly carved oval footrim, painted on the inside using ink and watercolors with a continuous scene, on one main side praying mantis perched on a grassy bank looking down at fish swimming in the water below, an insect flying above, the reverse with a grasshopper perched on an overhanging rock, a second flying insect in the sky above, with a dedication inscription, signed Ye Zhongsan with one red seal, yin and dated; stopper.
2 1/2in (6.2cm) high
Footnotes:
乙亥年（1935） 水晶内畫蟲草游魚鼻煙壺一件
葉氏家族 《葉仲三》款

Provenance:
Bob C. Stevens Collection
Sotheby's New York, June 25, 1982, lot 245
Joan and Ted Dorf Collection, no. 28

Literature:
Bob C. Stevens. The Collectors Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, p. 245, no. 900

The painting inside this bottle is a scene painted by a number of Middle School Beijing artists such as Zhou Leyuan, Ye Zhongsan and Chen Zhongsan among others. Although this is clearly by one of Ye's sons, and in all likelihood Ye Xiaofeng, given the date of 1935, it is extremely well conceived and painted in a continuous scene, following the style of his father.

Inner mouth rim polish. Finely painted conforming to the elegant shape of the snuff bottle.