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Lot Essay
This unique bottle, with its unusual cylindrical shape for a nephrite bottle and strangely colored material, is difficult to place in any particular school, although the material bears some resemblance to that sometimes used by the Masters of the Rocks School; there are also some similarities in the style of carving. See Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 1, Jade, nos. 133-43.
The subject of this bottle is the dragon conjurer, Shegong, shown here with his dragon. According to Liang gaoseng zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Buddhist Monks [Compiled in the] Liang Dynasty), Shegang was a Central Asian who traveled to Chang'an in AD 375 during the reign of Fu Jian (338-385). He had the ability to summon the divine dragon by reciting incantations, and whenever the country was afflicted by drought, Fu Jian ordered Shegong to send for the dragon. The fabulous creature would immediately appear, and the moment it would dive into Shegong's alms bowl, rain poured down from the sky. See Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, vol. 5, Glass, no. 1041.
The subject of this bottle is the dragon conjurer, Shegong, shown here with his dragon. According to Liang gaoseng zhuan (Biographies of Eminent Buddhist Monks [Compiled in the] Liang Dynasty), Shegang was a Central Asian who traveled to Chang'an in AD 375 during the reign of Fu Jian (338-385). He had the ability to summon the divine dragon by reciting incantations, and whenever the country was afflicted by drought, Fu Jian ordered Shegong to send for the dragon. The fabulous creature would immediately appear, and the moment it would dive into Shegong's alms bowl, rain poured down from the sky. See Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, vol. 5, Glass, no. 1041.