A YELLOWISH-GREEN AND RUSSET JADE SNUFF BOTTLE

MASTER OF THE ROCKS SCHOOL, 1730-1850

Details

A YELLOWISH-GREEN AND RUSSET JADE SNUFF BOTTLE
MASTER OF THE ROCKS SCHOOL, 1730-1850
The rounded rectangular bottle is well carved through the dark russet skin on one side with a scene of the fisherman and the woodcutter beneath an arching pine tree. A smaller, paler, inclusion on the back of one narrow side is carved to depict a rock from which plantain leaves emerge.
2¾ in. high (6.9 cm.), coral stopper

Provenance

Y.F. Yang & Co., Hong Kong, 4 August 1977.
Christie's New York, 24-25 March 2011, lot 1564.

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Lot Essay

The Master of the Rocks School specialized in carvings from this distinctive material. The School's main output was bottles carved with landscape designs, but many other subjects are recorded, including a few with chi-dragon designs, which may have been partly produced for the Court.
For other examples of snuff bottles from the Master of the Rocks School, see H. Moss, V. Graham and K.B. Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 1, Jade, Hong Kong, 1995, nos. 136-41.
The subject matter represents two of the Four Noble Professions, in this case, that of woodcutter and fisherman, the other two being farmer and scholar.

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