Lot 1111
Treasury 1, no. 97 (‘The Trojan White Jade Basket’)
HK$300,000

Nephrite; very well hollowed; with a concave lip; carved in the form of a woven basket with a concave foot, the basket with loops at each shoulder connected by a rope handle, which hangs loosely down each narrow side and across the base of one main side
Possibly imperial, perhaps palace workshops, Beijing, 1770–1850
Height: 6.32 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.57/1.82 and 1.75 cm (oval)
Stopper: carnelian; glass collar

Provenance:
Trojan Collection
Robert Hall (1993)

Published:
Hall 1992, no. 14
Kleiner 1995, no. 99
Treasury 1, no. 97
Gugong bowuyuan 2000, no. 107

Exhibited:
British Museum, London, June–October 1995
University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, 1999
Palace Museum, Beijing, 2000

So many examples of basketweave bottles can be attributed to the court or to court influence that it is clearly established as a popular imperial subject of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This basketweave bottle differs from the standard range in two respects. The prominent pattern of the basketweave is aligned horizontally rather than vertically, and two loop handles, one on each shoulder, host a dangling rope-handle. It is the latter that links the bottle to flower- and fruit-basket designs in other materials, most of which have a handle attached to two loops. This is an extremely rare feature on basketweave-pattern bottles, and since the bottle itself is unlikely to pre-date the late-Qianlong period and is, therefore, unlikely to be a prototype for the design, the obvious conclusion is that the handle was added to this particular bottle in response to the popular style of the woven baskets containing fruit and flowers. This would allow a possible imperial attribution, which is not at all unlikely, since the other two white jade basketweave bottles in this collection can also be attributed to the court and the mid-Qing period (see Sale 2, lot 56 and Sale 6, lot 176). Another feature that suggests this possibility is the flawed nephrite used. The finely varied carving of the basketweave cleverly conceals the flaws, but close examination reveals that in fact the material is typical of a range of nephrite used at or for the court. Here, a natural fissure in the stone is cleverly disguised by the sweep of the rope-handle. Another possible stylistic link with the imperial flower- and-fruit-basket group is the form, which is unusual for a basketweave-pattern bottle, more closely resembling the sort of shape one would expect of a glass bottle of the subject.

The form, unusual disposition of the weave, and the rope handle breaking up the formal symmetry of the design, together with the fine hollowing and detailing, particularly of the concave lip with its basketweave edge, all combine to make this one of the most spectacular and appealing of all basketweave snuff bottles.

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