Bottle ID: 500

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INCISED POEM ON BOTH SIDES

Date: 1750-1850

Height: 56 mm

Nephrite, white, very well hollowed, of flattened ovoid form, with central raised panels tapering to flattened sides with an everted lip and well carved foot rim, the front and reverse inscribed in regular script with twenty-five different characters for the word for longevity 'shou'.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

 

 

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection nos. 162, 259, 920 and 921
Crane Collection no. 187
Holden, Rachelle R. Rivers and Mountains Far From the World - The Rachelle R. Holden Collection, 1994, pp. 320-321, no. 142.
Stevens, Bob C. The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, p. 113, no. 360.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1995, pp. 260-263, no. 107.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
Sotheby's, New York, March 23, 2004, lot 156
Robert and Molly Hsieh
Robert Kleiner Ltd., 1991

Each of the two sides of of the bottle is inscribed with twenty-five different forms of the character for longevity "shou". It is possible therefore that the bottle was a birthday gift on the occasion of the recipient's fiftieth birthday. However it is more likely that the bottle was originally one of a pair, which would together display one hundred different shou characters, thus corrresponding to the popular Baishou tu (100 Characters for Longevity Chart).

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