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Lot Essay
This bottle, carved as a lively cat poised as if ready to pounce, is one of the rarer forms in a group of white jade bottles carved as animals. This group of animal-form bottles is characterized by their superb sculptural qualities and painstaking hollowing.
The cat is a form that is very rarely found on Chinese works of art, although the white cat appears occasionally in paintings. As such, it may be appropriate that white jade has been used as the material for producing the present bottle.
Among the group of nephrite-carved animal-shaped snuff bottles are bears, two of which are included in the J&J Collection, illustrated by Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, New York, 1993, nos. 1 and 2. Other similar bottles include pigs or boars, such as the ones illustrated by H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, no. 33; Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 56; and Harriet H. Hamilton, Oriental Snuff Bottles, p. 34, J-59. For figures of dogs, see Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 3, p. 24, fig. 14; and a rare brown crystal example sold in our London Rooms, 12 October 1987, lot 357.
The cat is a form that is very rarely found on Chinese works of art, although the white cat appears occasionally in paintings. As such, it may be appropriate that white jade has been used as the material for producing the present bottle.
Among the group of nephrite-carved animal-shaped snuff bottles are bears, two of which are included in the J&J Collection, illustrated by Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, New York, 1993, nos. 1 and 2. Other similar bottles include pigs or boars, such as the ones illustrated by H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, no. 33; Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 56; and Harriet H. Hamilton, Oriental Snuff Bottles, p. 34, J-59. For figures of dogs, see Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 3, p. 24, fig. 14; and a rare brown crystal example sold in our London Rooms, 12 October 1987, lot 357.