A Chinese Ruby Overlay 'Eight Horses of Wang Mu' Snuff Bottle, 19th Century
清中期雪霏地套寶石紅料穆王八駿鼻烟壺

19th Century

Of tapering rounded-rectangular form, the shoulders sloping to a slightly everted neck, with a flat lip, wide mouth and protruding oval footrim, the translucent bubble-suffused body well carved through the ruby-red overlay to depict the Eight Horses of Wang Mu in various postures, evenly spaced.

Height without stopper 2 3/4 in., 7 cm.

Property from the Estate of Dr. Thomas A. Klein, MD., Sold to benefit the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

This lot is located in New York.

Alice B. McReynolds Collection, New York.
Sotheby's New York, February 25-26, 1982, lot 62
A private New York Collection.
Bonhams New York, September 9, 2019, lot 137.
Property from the Estate of Dr. Thomas A. Klein, MD. Sold to benefit the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
來源：
紐約州紐約市Alice B. McReynolds女士舊藏。
紐約蘇富比1982年2月25-26日專場62號。
紐約州紐約市私人收藏。
邦瀚斯紐約2019年9月9日專場137號。
Thomas Klein醫生遺產，拍賣所得歸Jefferson醫院。

湯姆·克萊因醫生收藏鼻烟壺逾四十年。他畢業於哈佛大學與羅徹斯特大學，曾於美國陸軍擔任婦產科醫師並出任高階領導職務。其後於傑佛遜醫院服務三十年，2023年以婦產科副主任身分榮退，期間培養了五百餘名住院醫師與無數醫學生。他的學術與臨床精神延續於以其名設立的「Thomas A. Klein 講席教授」，本場拍賣所得亦歸於傑佛遜醫院。

Tom Klein’s life was shaped by two enduring passions: medicine and the collecting of snuff bottles. While these worlds rarely intersected, both were marked by the same qualities—quiet dedication, discernment, and grace.

Tom was unfailingly modest–when the I.C.S.B.S. held its convention in Philadelphia, he entrusted me to select bottles from his collection for the exhibition “Embers of the East,” a task made challenging by the number of exceptional bottles. His passion for collecting was thoughtful rather than acquisitive, grounded in appreciation rather than display. These were his companions—objects he handled, studied, and loved for over 40 years.

Professionally, Tom enjoyed an equally distinguished career. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Rochester, he served as an obstetrician-gynecologist in the U.S. Army in senior leadership roles. He spent thirty years at Jefferson Hospital, retiring in 2023 as Vice Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, having trained more than five hundred residents and countless medical students. His legacy continues through the Thomas A. Klein, MD Professorship in Quality and Safety in Women’s Health.

To those who knew him as a collector, these accomplishments mirrored the man I admired: principled, generous, and exacting without pretension. Over the 35 years I had the privilege to know him, he was a gentleman in the most absolute sense of the word. Though he is deeply missed, his presence endures in the objects he cherished and in our shared love of snuff bottles.
Clare Chu

A Chinese Ruby Overlay 'Eight Horses of Wang Mu' Snuff Bottle, 19th Century清中期 雪霏地套寶石紅料穆王八駿鼻烟壺

A Chinese Ruby Overlay 'Eight Horses of Wang Mu' Snuff Bottle, 19th Century
清中期雪霏地套寶石紅料穆王八駿鼻烟壺