19th century
The bottle is of cylindrical form with sloping shoulders. It is painted with a continuous scene from the epic novel 'Journey to the West' depicting the monk Xuanzang 玄奘, and his companions 'Monkey King', 'Piggy' (half human and half pig) and Friar Sand on their legendary pilgrimage to India to bring the Buddhist scriptures to China.
They are endangered by mythical demons, here by the demonic spider women who can take human forms, seven sisters living in the Silk Web Cave. Monkey King is seen emerging from clouds ready to fight the evil monsters to rescue his master.
The base has a garland scroll
Height 7 cm
Provenance: From the collection Mr Carl Barkman, former Dutch diplomat in China in the 1960s
'Journey to the West' (Xi you ji ) 西游记, is a 16th century epic novel written by Wu Cheng'en.
S93 十九世紀 青花銅紅「西遊記」鼻煙壺
時代：19世紀。
特徵：壺身呈圓柱形，肩部略斜。周身描繪「西遊記」中著名的孫悟空大戰蜘蛛精一景，可見從雲中出現的孫悟空準備與蜘蛛精戰鬥，以保護玄奘、豬八戒與沙悟淨一行人。
尺寸：高7公分。
來源：來自Carl Barkman先生收藏，原為荷蘭駐中國外交官於1960年代獲得之收藏。
