A WHITE JADE 'CHAMPION'S VASE' DOUBLE SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

Collection of E.E. Brake, London.
Robert Hall, London, 1992.

Robert Kleiner, Boda Yang, and Clarence F. Shangraw, Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 25.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-1995.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.
Qing dai gongting baozhuang yishu [The sumptuous art of imperial packaging of the Qing dynasty], Palace Museum, Beijing, 2000, cat. no. 108

Geoffrey Wills, Jade of the East, New York, 1972, p.119, no. 97.
Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Winter 1992, p. 1.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 101.

Minute nibbles to both inner and outer lips. One tiny scratch just below the outer lip on one side. Otherwise good condition.
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There is a small group of miniature, flattened so-called ‘hero’s vases’ attributable to the Beijing palace workshops of the Qianlong period. They were not intended as snuff bottles and when complete have an integral cover of matching nephrite with a flanged lid, the flange sitting inside the mouth. The form is derived from vessels dating back to the Western Han period. Because they often have flying creatures treading on monstrous beasts, they are commonly called yingxiong ping 英雄瓶 (‘hero vases’), which puns on yingxiong ping 膺熊瓶 (‘eagle-and-bear’ bases).

In their original form this group of miniature vessels could not have functioned practically as snuff bottles, since the covers of both sides are joined. If the covers were fitted with spoons, the removal of snuff would have been extremely difficult because it would have to be taken from both sides at once, and the spoons could not be twisted to scoop it up.

The narrow rectangular shape of the interior of this bottle would not be practical for snuff even with separate stoppers, raising the question of whether this bottle was converted for use or simply a collector’s piece. The dating of the stoppers and the size of the beautifully matched tortoiseshell spoons suggests the latter, with a probable twentieth-century date. Conversions were a common enough form of snuff bottle and perfectly acceptable to collectors as long as the conversion truly adapted the vessel for use as a snuff bottle. An early animal carving converted in the Qing period for use as a snuff bottle becomes a snuff bottle, and a fascinating one at that. Even an eighteenth-century pendant or pebble-carving of the late-Qing period still satisfies the criterion. This example may never have been intended for use as a snuff container but it still qualifies as one in theory, since that is what it is now.

Because of its extraordinary qualities as a work of art one is tempted to overlook the ambiguity of this bottle’s origins. It is made from flawless nephrite of a lovely colour. It has two of the more lively and impressive chi dragons from the imperial output of the Qing dynasty and the impressively detailed archaistic carving with superb even polish is typical of the finest of small jade carvings made for and often at the court during the Qianlong period.