A WHITE JADE LEAF-WRAPPED BITTER-MELON BOTTLE

1750-1800

Details
A WHITE JADE LEAF-WRAPPED BITTER-MELON BOTTLE
1750-1800
Of tear shape, naturalistically carved with large veined leaves wrapped around the knobby surface of the bitter-melon, minor areas of attractive russet inclusions, stopper
2¼in. (5.7cm.) high

Lot Essay

This bottle falls into a well-known group of fruit, flower and vegetable-form snuff bottles, mostly of white and greenish-white nephrite. (See also lot 280.) Unlike the majority of these, however, this example can stand upright unsupported. However, as noted by Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 155, "their popularity at Court cannot be in doubt since they still form a large proportion of the published nephrite bottles from the Imperial collection". Seventeen examples from the Imperial Collection in Taipei are published in Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991, pp. 153-156 and p. 162, nos. 136-153 and nos. 155 and 156