IMPERIAL, 1720-1840

It was common practice to protect large jars with an outer casing of a variety of woven or plaited material, 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 Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 2, Part 2, Quartz, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 450-1, 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 more ovoid version of this type, with the plain neck rising from the basketweave pattern, was sold in these rooms, 13-14 September 2012, lot 1120. Another type, where the entire bottle is carved as a woven basket, is illustrated in Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.1, Jade, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 240-1, no. 98.