Lot 1137
Treasury 1, no. 95 (‘The Emperor’s Glutton’)
HK$106,250

Nephrite; well hollowed; with a flat-rimmed concave foot; carved in low relief on each side with an elaborate and highly stylized taotie mask made up largely of archaistic cloud-like motifs; the narrow sides each with an archaistic motif made up of joined kui dragons that also form a taotie mask, tied loosely around its centre with a rope
Probably imperial, attributable to the palace workshops, Beijing, 1736–1795
Height: 5.31 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.53/1.3 and 1.35 (oval)
Stopper: coral, carved with a three-legged toad acting as a finial

Provenance:
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (Hong Kong, 1993)

Published:
Kleiner 1995, no. 46
Treasury 1, no. 95

Exhibited:
British Museum, London, June–October 1995

Attributions to the palace workshops and the Qianlong period for this bottle are based upon several factors. The choice of material of no inherent value as jade fits in with Qianlong imperial taste, as do the choice of subject matter and the highly interpretive archaism, with the taotie composed of a wide face area made up of archaistic C scrolls and variations thereof. A similar design appears on a yellow nephrite vase and cover in the imperial collection in Beijing (Weng Wange and Yang Boda 1982, p. 264, no. 165). Finally, the strange archaism of the narrow sides, with a taotie made up of two linked kui dragons, is finished with a decorative flourish that is typical of the palace workshops: a ring made of twisted strands reminiscent of the rope motifs that palace carvers borrowed so often from Han-dynasty bronzes.

Like Sale 4, lot 67, this snuff bottle is unusually well hollowed, has a similar archaistic motif, and exhibits extremely high quality in the carving of the surface.

Assuming imperial provenance, this is the only known snuff bottle of this type of pale spinach-green nephrite that can be reasonably attributed to the palace workshops, although there are other plain bottles of similar material that may have been imperial products (see, for instance, Friedman 1990, no. 72, and Hall 1991, no. 33,). Spinach-green nephrite was available long before the snuff-bottle period (a fifteenth-century tankard sold at Sotheby’s, London, 28 April 1994 is of this material) and became common after Yaqub Beg replaced Qing rule in the Tarim Basin in the mid nineteenth century, the nephrite trade dwindled, and traders turned to the Lake Baikal area for a substitute material. It is likely that the darker speckled material that figures so prominently in mid- to late-Qing carvings and became the standard for spinach-green was mined, since it was obviously available in large quantities, was all of similar colour, and is nearly always without any trace of skin used in the carving.

The stopper, which is certainly not original and presumably once graced a bottle decorated with Liu Hai, with whom the three-legged toad is associated, is exquisitely carved and a masterpiece in its own right.

This is not the Sotheby’s sale catalogue. This is a product of Hugh Moss for the purposes of this website. For the catalogue details please refer to Sotheby’s website or request a copy of a printed sale catalogue from Sotheby’s.