Bottle ID: 637

< Previous page

GRAY WITH MONKEY AND BUTTERFLY

Date: 1750-1860

Height: 59 mm

Agate, well hollowed, of rectangular form with rounded shoulders and a neatly carved footrim, the gray stone with a white inclusions carved as a monkey crouched on a rock clutching a peach, and observing a golden brown butterfly overhead, the reverse incised with a peach tree issuing from a rock. Official School.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 628
Crane Collection nos. 117 and 192
Kleiner, Robert. Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect. Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Denis Low, 1999, p. 210, no. 181.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1998, Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 318-321, no. 299.
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, October 30, 1990, lot 69, The Kaynes-Klitz Collection, Part II.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
The Collection of P. Harvey, Southern CA

This bottle, where the white inclusion in the stone is used to great effect in the low relief carving of a monkey clutching a peach and looking upwards at a wasp, is part of the Official School, and would have been a highly symbolic gift for the official aspiring to, or having achieved, a higher rank. The peach is a potent symbol of immortality, often seen in the hands of the mischievous monkey.

< Back to full list