IMPERIAL, 1740-1860

It was common practice to protect large jars with an outer casing of a variety of woven or plaited materials, and snuff bottles simulating a vessel tightly contained in a wicker basket or entirely simulating basketweave are found in a variety of materials including ivory, jade, amber, rock crystal, molded gourd and glass. For a discussion on the series of 'basketweave' snuff bottles in various materials see H. Moss, V. Graham, and K.B. Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 2, Part 2, Quartz, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 450-51, no. 347, where it is suggested that the design was a popular Imperial subject of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The popularity of the basketweave design, in general, at the Court may arise from the probable symbolism of the basket (lanzi), which is a pun on male children (nanzi), one of the three desires dear to the Chinese heart, which are embodied in the term sanduo (Three Plenties).

A similar white jade 'basketweave' bottle, without the 'rope' borders, from the Hildegard Schonfeld Collection was sold at Christie's New York, 21 March 2013, lot 1110.