Page 62 - September 21 2021 Curtis collections snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

657
A SUPERB WHITE JADE ‘EGGPLANT-FORM’ SNUFF BOTTLE
1730-1800
Magnificently carved with the most subtle of gradations in the shape
of an eggplant with a leafy collar at the mouth of the bottle and with a
more high-relief gnarled branch extending from one side and trailing
veined leaves towards the wider base which is further carved with two
butterflies or moths.
2 1/2in (6.3cm) high, stopper
$7,000 - 10,000

1730-1800年 白玉雕花卉蝴蝶紋鼻煙壺

Provenance:
Alice McReynolds Collection

See Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of
Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.
1, Part 1, Jade, pp. 154-155, no. 62, for a discussion of a series of
fruit-, flower-, and vegetable-form bottles, mostly of white or greenish-
white nephrite and sometimes with areas of brown skin, which form
a large and well-known group. The authors suggest that the entire
oeuvre might best be termed as ‘naturalistic’ thus embracing all forms
dictated by nature, be it flora or fauna. He further argues that whilst
many of the group were certainly made at different centers, there
seems to be evidence that they were popular at Court and that a fair
number of them might have been made in the Imperial workshops.
Their popularity at Court can not be in doubt given the large proportion
of published nephrite bottles from the Imperial collection.

For a group of fruit-form bottles, including an example of aubergine
shape not so very different from ours, see Michael C. Hughes, The
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Chinese Snuff Bottles, Baltimore, 2009,
pp. 60-69, no’s. 43-50.

For another example of slightly more slender form, see Ning Wang,
One Man’s Choice, II, Beijing, 2009, p. 54, no. 52.

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