Bottle ID: 441

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CARVED, BROWN CHI DRAGON

Date: 1740-1800

Height: 53 mm

Nephrite, white and brown, very well hollowed, of small rounded ovoid form tapering to a recessed oval foot, and with gently sloping shoulders, the design carved using the brown inclusion in free-standing relief away from the body of the bottle, with a formalized chi dragon.
Probably Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

 

 

Similar Examples:

Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1995, Vol. 1, pp. 70-71, no. 23.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
Butterfields, San Francisco, June 27, 2000, lot 3378

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS New York, November 2013

Published:

JICSBS, Autumn 2013, Front Cover

 

This bottle seems to have been cleverly designed in the form of a belt buckle with a bottle attachment. However it is unlikely that this was more than a blatant attempt to suggest this form, as it would have been very awkward to take snuff from a bottle attached at the waist by a belt, or indeed to undo the belt to remove the bottle to take snuff. The depiction of the chi dragon was an archaic decorative form beloved at court and particularly by the Qianlong emperor, as was the 'meiping' form of the main body of the bottle. The combination of these features suggest an imperial attribution for this bottle.

 

 

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