Lot 3823
  • 3823

A WHITE JADE 'PRUNUS AND POEM' SNUFF BOTTLE ATTRIBUTED TO SUZHOU, QING DYNASTY, 17TH / 18TH CENTURY

Estimate
150,000 - 200,000 HKD
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Description

finely carved with a compressed pear-shaped body rising from a short footring, finely smoothed, polished and worked in low relief on one side with flowering prunus and a bamboo sprig, the reverse incised with a fourteen-character inscription in rubbing script, signed Lu Zigang 

Provenance

Hugh M. Moss collection.
The Meriem Collection.
Christie's New York, 19th March 2008, lot 243.

Exhibited

Art Gallery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1979.
Canadian Craft Museum, Vancouver, 1992.
James Watt, Chinese Jades from Han to Ch'ing, Asia Society, New York, 1980, cat. no. 222.

Catalogue Note

The poetic inscription translates as follows:

'Its blossoms emerge under the brush, like Guang Ping's steely character, 
Its beauty is worthy of poetry, like Gu She's ice-like flesh'.

Guang Ping is the alias of the Tang dynasty minister Song Jing (663-738), who was known for his directness, and is recorded as having composed a poem, 'An Ode to Prunus'.

For a discussion of jade snuff bottles bearing the signature Lu Zigang, see Moss, Graham and Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, no. 28.