Page 108 - Carl Barron Snuff Bottle Collection, CHRISTIE's Spet 12 2018

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A LARGE CARVED GREY AND BLACK JADE SNUFF BOTTLE
MASTER OF THE ROCKS SCHOOL, 1740-1840
The bottle is carved primarily on one side in shallow relief with a man pulling a covered
skif containing a reclining fgure towards the shore and a pavilion, all below pine trees
and a swirling cloud of white color. The reverse is left largely uncarved at the center,
utilizing the silvery black and gray stone to resemble a fog.
2æ in. (7 cm.) high, quartz stopper
$20,000-30,000
PROVENANCE
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, 2000.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 2937.
EXHIBITED
Boston, International Chinese Snuf Bottle Society Convention,
The Barron Collection, 23-26 September 2008.
The Master of the Rocks School seems to have 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. The quality of carving and the use of material
of the present bottle are typical of this School.
A comparable example from the Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuf
Bottles: Part V, was sold at Christie’s New York, 13 September 2017, lot 217, and another
from the Blanche B. Exstein Collection was sold at Christie’s New York, 21 March 2002,
lot 158. For other examples of snuf bottles from the Master of the Rocks School, see
Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuf Bottles, the Mary and George Bloch
Collection, Vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 332-69, nos. 128-41. The bottle, no. 128,
pp. 322-23, exhibits a very similar material and style to the present bottle.
1740-1840年 灰玉雕亭臺山水圖鼻煙壺

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