AN INSCRIBED CHALCEDONY 'ABUNDANT GARDEN' SNUFF BOTTLE OFFICIAL SCHOOL, QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Hugh M. Moss Ltd., 1977.
Belfort Collection.

Très précieuses tabatières chinoises: Collection rassemblée par Maître Viviane Jutheau, L'Arcade Chaumet, Paris, 1982.

Viviane Jutheau, Guide du collectionneur de tabatières chinoises, Paris, 1980, p. 103.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 316.

Tiny chip to the end of one leaf of the flowering branch.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This distinctive material was used at Suzhou (see Sale 7, lot 25), but its use was obviously an exception for the school of Zhiting, whereas it was a fairly standard material for bottles designed for the official class (a group that has until recently been called the ‘Official School’), particularly of the pebble and peanut agate group represented by Sale 6, lot 150, and lot 28in this sale. It is believed it was possibly carved in Suzhou at a workshop other than that of Zhiting.

Inscriptions are, of course, a standard Suzhou feature, but as a rule they are not carved within cartouches, as are two of these, nor do they use large regular-script characters cut in this manner. This style of inscription is, however, common to certain inscribed bottles, such as Sale 1, lot 82, in technique.

The court regularly ordered Suzhou carvings in apparently quite large quantities through the local Silk Manufactory (see Yang Boda 1992), and it is quite possible that not only this bottle but perhaps many of the school were actually made in workshops at Suzhou in response, independent of the Suzhou style of the Zhiting school.

It is a telling fact that although there are records of copious imperial orders for jades to be made at Suzhou during the Qianlong period, no jade vessel or larger-sized object so far published from the imperial collection, or indeed seen in any other collections, is decorated with the standard serrated-rock style of the snuff-bottle group. This style seems entirely confined to snuff bottles, small pendants, and amulets and may represent the style of only one specialist workshop.

This bottle is actually much more reminiscent of certain small Suzhou pendants than it is of the accepted snuff-bottle style and may have been made in a workshop that made such pendants rather than in that one responsible for the well-known Suzhou snuff-bottle style.

The imaginative fitting of the subject matter to the material is masterly and subtle, using the colour of the ground plane as a prominent part of the relief work and the darker brown and beige relief colours mainly as shading and emphasis, although one inscribed cartouche and the peony are defined almost entirely by the opaque beige material. The rounded carving, particularly on the side with the deer and the rather amusingly depicted figure, is excellent, with impeccable differentiation between relief and ground planes. It is most unusual to see a scholar lounging in a reclining chair in this way, although the chairs themselves are quite commonly found to this day.