Bottle ID: 771

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STAINED, FOUR ARCHAIC CHARACTERS ON EACH SIDE

Date: 1750-1820

Height: 64 mm

Nephrite, very well hollowed, of flattened squared form, with rounded shoulders and a cylindrical neck, and with a neatly carved oval footrim, the bottle stained to imitate the russet skin of a jade pebble, carved in low relief on each main side with four archaic characters, one side reading 'prosperity and long life', the reverse reading 'your heart is in the stone'.

Similar Examples:

Crane no.s 402 and 331

Provenance:

A private Southern Californian Collection

 

In the spirit of archaism a nephrite object was sometimes stained during its production to resemble the hue and patination of earlier pieces. In 1743 the Qianlong Emperoro gave instructions for the improvement, as he saw it, of two white jade pieces which had been ordered from the Imperial workshops eleven months earlier. His instructions were:

"Bake the white jade immortal and the horse to create some stains so they look like Han jades, and make an elegant stand for each of them".

The archaic style of the inscriptions further add to the allusion of archaism with the common wish for prosperity and long life, but also with a statement about the reverence with which the Chinese held jade, prizing it as a material above all others.

 

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