Bottle ID: 748

< Previous page

LAVENDER MOON-FLASK

Date: 1780-1850

Height: 42 mm

Lavender jadeite, well hollowed, of flattened moon-flask form with rounded shoulders with scrolling lug handles, sloping to a long cylindrical neck with a shallow rim, and with a neatly carved circular footrim, the natural lavender-colored stone carved in low relief below the handles with a key fret band encircling the bottle, above four acanthus leaves on the main body.

Similar Examples:

Crane no.s 285 and 728
Stevens, Bob C. The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, p. 282, no. 1010
Kleiner, Robert. Treasures from the sanctum of Enlightened Respect. Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Denis Low, 1999, p. 71, no. 58

Provenance:

The Marks Collection, FL.

 

There are no records for when lavender jadeite was first imported into China from Burma. However, it was likely that it was from the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The form of this bottle is taken from a Ming dyansty porcelain form and is also seen in nephrite, and less rarely in jadeite. One reason for this may be the difficulty of carving jadeite as the stone is more brittle than nephrite, consequently most examples of lavender jadeite bottles are left uncarved, unlike this rare example.

 

< Back to full list