Bottle ID: 242

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CARVED AS A MAGNOLIA BLOSSOM

Date: 1750-1820

Height: 71 mm

Nephrite, the stone of an even white tone, very well hollowed and carved in the form of a magnolia bud flanked by a smaller bloom issuing from a gnarled branch beside lingzhi fungus and with a wasp to one side.

 

 

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 354
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1995, Vol. 1, pp. 152-153, no. 61.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Sotheby's Swire, Hong Kong, November 1, 1994, lot 1249
A Private Collection
Sotheby's, Sussex, U.K., June 25, 1991, lot 179

Pure white jade was a favored stone during the eighteenth century, so it is apt that this material would be used to carve one of the most favored ornamental blooms in the Chinese garden. White magnolia is called yulan in Chinese, meaning jade orchid and is symbolic of purity. The phrase: "a branch of blosssoming white magnolia" forms the rebus "a handsome and talented young man". In its turn this phrase can also mean: "a jade tree in the wind". The Tang poet Du fu used this phrase in his "Song of the Drunken Eight Immortals". The carving of a wasp to one side of the bud makes this rebus unmistakable since the word for 'wasp' and 'wind' are the same.

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