Tsang and Moss discuss a group of inscribed jade pebbles in the exhibition Catalogue, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, no. 154 and explain that "...seemingly humble pebbles have been simply polished, their natural beauty allowed to speak for iteself and transformed into treasures for the scholar's studio".

Finely hollowed jade pebbles transformed into snuff bottles were treasured as well. Cf. another undecorated example illustrated by Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, no. 372.

Moss, Graham and Tsang in A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Collection of Mary and George Bloch, 1995, illustrate five undecorated pebble-form snuff bottles. Commenting on illustration no. 5, a white jade pebble bottle, similar to this lot, they note that all traces of the skin of the pebble have been removed which goes against the aesthetic convention, retaining part of the russet skin to authenticate the pebble origin ofthe piece. The authors speculate that perhaps the craftsman was attracted by teh potential flawlessness of the stone and sought to show the absolute purity of the white jade.

Aside from offering visual delight, this bottle sits perfectly in the hand when the stone's smooth texture can be appreciated to its full.