A QUARTZ ‘MAKARA’ SNUFF BOTTLE
A QUARTZ ‘MAKARA’ SNUFF BOTTLE

QING DYNASTY, 1730-1870

Details
A QUARTZ ‘MAKARA’ SNUFF BOTTLE
QING DYNASTY, 1730-1870
The bottle is carved in the form of a mythical beast with the body of a fish and the head of a single-horned dragon. Together with a yellow agate leaf-form snuff dish.

Bottle: 3 ¼ in. (8.2 cm.) long, jadeite stopper; Dish: 2 3/8 in. (6 cm.) long
Provenance
Bottle: Robert Kleiner, London, 1992
Snuff Bottles from the Mary & George Bloch Collection: Part IX, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 24 November 2014, lot 152
Literature
Bottle: Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 245
Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent, The Water Pine and Stone Retreat Collection of Snuff Bottles. Part One. Imperial Influence over the Snuff Bottle Arts, Hong Kong, 2017, no. 31.2.973
Exhibited
Bottle: Robert Kleiner, Boda Yang, and Clarence F. Shangraw, Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 238
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-1995

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Priscilla Kong
Priscilla Kong

Lot Essay

The creature here is probably intended as a dragon-carp, the symbol of a candidate passing the metropolitan examinations and qualifying as an official. This mythical creature and its symbolism are based upon observation of Yellow River carp swimming upstream and leaping over the falls at the ‘Dragon gate’ (Longmen), a particularly arduous task following a long, upriver journey, hence symbolising the final triumph of the student. The carp is thought to be transformed into a dragon, while the student becomes a scholar, qualifying automatically for official service. As a rule, such dragon-carp would be expected to have two horns, but such details are flexible in mythical expression and the head here is sufficiently dragon-like with or without two horns to carry the required symbolism.

Compare to a bottle in the same material, but in the form of a carp, also with rather impractical protruding detail and probably from the same school of carving, sold at Christie’s London, 12 October 1987, lot 356.

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