An inscribed Suzhou school white jade snuff bottle, Qing dynasty- Republican period | 清至民國 青白玉人物詩文紋鼻煙壼

The reverse of the present bottle is inscribed with a poem by the Emperor Qianlong titled hua zhong you, ‘a Journey within a painting’. The poem records the event when, upon returning from an Imperial tour in the Jiangnan province, the Emperor had commissioned a court artist to recreate a miniature model of a particular landscape he admired but ended up being disappointed with the result. One night, the Emperor met in a dream an Elderly scholar accompanied by two maiden holding a painted scroll inviting him to ‘enter this painting’, allowing him to re-visit that landscape.