Page 182 - Bonham's Asian Art London November 2015

431
Two pale green and brown jade snuff bottles
Late Qing Dynasty
The first, well-hollowed and carved to a globular form, with concave lip
and foot, incised with a lonely boat on a mountainous river, stopper;
the second, of elongated flattened form, standing on a small, oval,
protruding foot ring, with gently flaring mouth, carved in shallow
relief with a bearded scholar in a continuous scene of mountainous
dwellings, stopper. 5cm (2in) and 7cm (2.3/4in) high (4).
£2,000 - 3,000
CNY19,000 - 29,000
HK$24,000 - 35,000

431

432 Y 432
A mottled grey jade ‘Eight Buddhist Emblems’ snuff
bottle
19th century
With a flat lip, the gently tapering body raised on a short recessed foot
rim and carved in low relief with two fish, an endless knot, a parasol, a
conch shell, a vase, a lotus flower, a canopy and a flaming wheel, the
stone of a mottled cream and dark brown hue.
7cm (2 3/4in) high (2).

£800 - 1,200
CNY7,700 - 12,000
HK$9,400 - 14,000

Provenance
A Scottish private collection.

433 433
180 | Bonhams A pale jade ‘shui shang piao’ snuff bottle
Late Qing Dynasty
Remarkably well hollowed and thinly carved, the bottle rising from a
precise, oval protruding foot ring to a gently-tapering, softly rounded
body, the shoulder crisply carved in shallow relief with paired mythical
beast-and-loop handles, the lip slightly concave, the pale stone of a
greenish hue with suffused white inclusions, stopper. 5.8cm (2 1/4in)
high (2).

£1,200 - 1,800
CNY12,000 - 17,000
HK$14,000 - 21,000

Shui shang piao [水上漂] is a phrase that has been used since the
Qianlong period to describe snuff bottles, such as the present lot, that
were so thinly carved that they looked as though they could ‘float upon
water’. Vessels of this type were of course highly sought after due to
the outstanding skill necessary to achieve this remarkable effect.