A FINELY CARVED YELLOWISH-GREEN AND RUSSET JADE SNUFF BOTTLE

MASTER OF THE ROCKS SCHOOL, 1740-1850

Details

A FINELY CARVED YELLOWISH-GREEN AND RUSSET JADE SNUFF BOTTLE
MASTER OF THE ROCKS SCHOOL, 1740-1850
The bottle is cleverly carved through the brown skin to the yellowish-green ground with a scene of Shoulao, the god of longevity, standing beneath a gnarled pine with a kneeling monkey offering him a peach, with lingzhi growing nearby. The narrow sides are carved with mask and fixed-ring handles, and the reverse with sparse ground foliage including a lingzhi.
2 ½ in. (6.4 cm) high, glass stopper

Provenance

Hilda Somers Collection, acquired in 1945.
The Blanche B. Exstein Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles; Christie's New York, 21 March 2002, lot 248.
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, 2002.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 3581.

Exhibited

Chinese Snuff Bottles, Taipei Gallery, New York, October 1993, p. 15.

Brought to you by

Margaret Gristina

mgristina@christies.com +1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

For a discussion of the Master of the Rocks School of carving, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Hong Kong, 1995, Volume. 1, pp. 340-373, nos. 133 - 143. This impressive example of the school depicts the monkey who stole the peaches of longevity from the garden of Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West, offering one to the God of Longevity.

For a similar Master of the Rocks bottle, in the same material, see L. S. Perry, Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Adventures and Studies of a Collector, Rutland, Vermont, 1960, p. 106, no. 30.

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