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Lot Essay
There is a fairly wide range of snuff bottles carved in the form of a fish, but this extraordinary example stands out as one of the masterpieces of the genre.
Characteristics of the carving style associated with the area of Suzhou include a tendency to work on several planes of carving, giving superb definition to each impeccably finished plane, and brilliant utilisation of the natural colours in the stone, incorporating in the design every nuance of color. Although an unusual subject for the school, this remarkable fish-form bottle exhibits all of these factors, allowing for a confident attribution to the Suzhou school.
The choice of material used for this bottle, a distinctive nephrite of black, grey and white mixed in a single specimen, was also extremely popular with the school. Here the colour is masterfully utilised. The fat, larger goldfish which forms the main part of the composition exhibits great sculptural strength, its exaggerated plumpness creating additional functional space while endowing the fish with an amusing, overstuffed personality. The clever sculptor has incorporated the opening required of a snuff bottle into the design by giving the fish a wide-open mouth.
The combination of the goldfish (jinyu) and crab-apple (haitang) expresses a blessing for wealth and prosperity, a play on the well-known phrase, jinyu mantang, "May your hall be filled with gold and jade."
A closely related black and white jade goldfish-form bottle in the Mary and George Bloch Collection is reproduced by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, vol. 1, Jade, pp. 142-43, no. 56. Like the present bottle, the Bloch bottle employs a paler streak in the material as a horizontal band. Both bottles have grey-white material beneath the fish carved in relief, although the Bloch example incorporates a frog into the design rather than a smaller goldfish. It is likely that both bottles date from the same period and are by the same hand, or, at least, were produced in the same workshop.
Characteristics of the carving style associated with the area of Suzhou include a tendency to work on several planes of carving, giving superb definition to each impeccably finished plane, and brilliant utilisation of the natural colours in the stone, incorporating in the design every nuance of color. Although an unusual subject for the school, this remarkable fish-form bottle exhibits all of these factors, allowing for a confident attribution to the Suzhou school.
The choice of material used for this bottle, a distinctive nephrite of black, grey and white mixed in a single specimen, was also extremely popular with the school. Here the colour is masterfully utilised. The fat, larger goldfish which forms the main part of the composition exhibits great sculptural strength, its exaggerated plumpness creating additional functional space while endowing the fish with an amusing, overstuffed personality. The clever sculptor has incorporated the opening required of a snuff bottle into the design by giving the fish a wide-open mouth.
The combination of the goldfish (jinyu) and crab-apple (haitang) expresses a blessing for wealth and prosperity, a play on the well-known phrase, jinyu mantang, "May your hall be filled with gold and jade."
A closely related black and white jade goldfish-form bottle in the Mary and George Bloch Collection is reproduced by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, vol. 1, Jade, pp. 142-43, no. 56. Like the present bottle, the Bloch bottle employs a paler streak in the material as a horizontal band. Both bottles have grey-white material beneath the fish carved in relief, although the Bloch example incorporates a frog into the design rather than a smaller goldfish. It is likely that both bottles date from the same period and are by the same hand, or, at least, were produced in the same workshop.