A Jadeite Snuff Bottle Qing Dynasty, 18th / 19th Century

The form, degree of hollowing, and small mouth all link it to the group of nephrite bottles discussed under Sale 3, lot 82, and in turn to a group of other plain stone bottles that share these characteristics. This broad group certainly pre-dates the 1880s. It almost certainly evolved at least a century earlier, and probably during the mid- to late-Qianlong period, although it may have remained popular well into the nineteenth century. There are only two possible conclusions: either these bottles are earlier than the 1880s, or the form was still being made at this late date and still being very well hollowed, even in jadeite, a material that was usually not well hollowed from the later Qing period. The former is probably more likely, although the almost certain manufacture of crystal bottles of exactly this type for the inside-painted artists of the Beijing school between the 1880s and the 1930s does demonstrate that the skills still existed to both form and hollow such bottles at the later date.

The material is a rare form of jadeite that is always spectacular and usually left undecorated because of the inherent excitement of the stone. The colour is an intense, opaque emerald-green, varying in broad, diagonal bands with inclusions in places of darker, almost black veining. Set on the opposite diagonal is a series of much paler narrow green veins that appear almost white in places. Apart from the abstract visual excitement set up by these properties in this particular example, the surfaces can also be read as a powerful seascape in a storm, the turbulent waves streaked with driving rain.



The bottle is carved with excellent formal integrity, and the interior is as well hollowed as the rest of the group—and through a characteristically tiny mouth, a more arduous task with jadeite than with nephrite because of the additional hardness of the material.

Drouot (Millon-Jutheau), Paris, 2nd July 1984, lot 135.

Moss et al., 1996-2009, vol. 1, no. 184.

It is in good condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."