SUZHOU SCHOOL, 1750-1820

Details

A CARVED PALE RUSSET AND WHITE JADE SNUFF BOTTLE
SUZHOU SCHOOL, 1750-1820
The bottle is finely carved on one side with a monkey seated on the edge of a rocky cave beneath a pine branch and picking a cluster of lingzhi. The reverse is framed by rocks and carved with a relief inscription reading, cai zhi tu (picture of picking the herb of immortality), followed by a seal, shuang shan (twin hills).
2 1⁄2 in. (5.7 cm.) high, malachite stopper

Provenance

Arthur Loveless Collection.
Bob C. Stevens Collection, no. 390.
Sotheby's New York, 26 March 1982, lot 146.
The Mei Ling Collection; Sotheby's New York, 15 March 1984, lot 177.
Rachelle R. Holden Collection, New York.

Literature

B. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, no. 390.
R. Holden, Rivers and Mountains Far From the World - The Rachelle R. Holden Collection, A Personal Commentary, New York, 1994, pp. 156-157, no. 65.

Exhibited

Tokyo, Mikimoto Hall, An Exhibition of Chinese Snuff Bottles From The Bob C. Stevens Collection, 22-31 October 1978, cat. no. 212.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

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Lot Essay

The most successful jade bottles from Suzhou created in the late 18th-early 19th century are those which exploit the strong contrasting tones in the stone. These contrasts are used to create decorative scenes on snuff bottles. This can be seen in lot 804 in the current sale, where the carver used the deep russet tones of the stone to highlight the figure's robe and the overhanging branches. The russet mottling is much more subtle on the current example and in turn relies on the masterful carving to enhance the scene. Another bottle from this group was sold in Snuff Bottles from the Mary & George Bloch Collection: Part IX, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 24 November 2014, lot 78.

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