Lot 1131
Treasury 3, no. 412 (‘The Hamilton Miniature Palace Aquamarine’)
HK$81,250

Aquamarine; well hollowed; with a flat neck and protruding flat foot
Probably imperial, possibly palace workshops, 1760–1850
Height: 3.77 cm
Mouth/lip 0.54/1.25 cm
Stopper: chalcedony; gilt-silver collar

Provenance:
Harriet Hamilton
Chimiles Collection

Published:
Hamilton 1977,>p. 49, no. S–5
Treasury 3, no. 412

This exquisite miniature is from the best colour of aquamarine available to the Chinese in specimens this size and exhibits the distinctive palace hollowing that follows the outer profile exactly until it gets to the foot, where enough material is left intact to create a heavy base for stability. We have enough indication of this phenomenon on jade bottles attributable to the court to assume that it is an imperial style, even if not exclusively. It was a practical choice for bottles that were likely to be put on shelves to serve as handy dispensers of snuff rather than being carried safely in a pouch or sleeve, but for bottles made of transparent material it was conceivably an aesthetic choice as well. When a transparent bottle was filled with snuff, the contours of the inner walls played a greater role in the design, and a thicker base was visually more satisfying. We might even suggest tentatively that it was with transparent materials that this style of hollowing developed, to be extended to opaque materials only later.

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.