A JADE 'MAGU' SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Trojan Collection.
Robert Hall, London, 1993. 

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. 55.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-5.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.

Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles V: From the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Trojan, London, 1992, cat. no. 11.
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. 135.

There are a few tiny nicks to the outer mouthlip. The stone has some natural veinings. The actual colour is quite similar to the catalogue illustration.
"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."

Magu, who is easily recognised by the chignon tied atop her head, long strands of hair hanging down to her waist, and long fingernails, enjoyed continued popularity over the centuries as a maiden Immortal. For a lengthy discussion of Magu with several portrayals of her in various media, see Tsang 1992.

Although this snuff bottle is from the Master of the Rocks school, this is not the school’s normal material. The skin and core colour of the pebble are used in one of the standard ways for the school, with the principal design concentrated entirely in the skin areas and the core serving as sky, but the colour is different. But the school did not limit itself to only one type of nephrite, and there are even a few examples known in atypical material without any skin.

This large, broad form is also one of the staples for the group, although apparently carved by a different hand from the classic examples of, say, Sale 1, lot 45; Sale 2, lot 122; Sale 6, lot 144; and Sale 7, lots 32 and 74. There are also three black-and-white nephrite bottles that are of the same school and also of this large, broad form (see Hall 1989, no. 128, decorated with typical turbulent water, thin, wispy clouds, pines and rocks, but extending the stylistic repertoire with a bizarre dwelling that is delightful in its naïveté and with cross-hatched foliage on one tree; Hall 1991, no. 37, a delightful windswept scene with the unusual subject of willows, but also with typical rocks and wispy, elongated clouds, and Christie’s, New York, 3 June 1993, lot 316, a large black-and-white nephrite bottle with Meng Haoran searching for prunus blossoms in the snow).

These larger bottles seem to constitute an alternative group for the school, perhaps an evolution in time or the works of a different governing artistic spirit in the workshop.

One of the features of this sub-group is the extraordinary confidence and power of the designs. On the broader canvas the artist always manages to create dynamic subjects full of flowing energy, embodied in either water or wind or both. Here, the turbulent waves carry the main burden of this vitality, but it is also picked up in the wind-whipped clouds in which one bat flies. It is also brilliantly suggested by the bat carved out of the core material, which looks as if it were being buffeted by the invisible wind that sweeps across the surface, its pose suggesting that momentarily the wind is master of the bat rather than the other way around.

In common with the broader group of this school, this bottle is very well hollowed, in this case through an unusually small mouth.

The skin colour of this pebble, in common with the majority from the school, is entirely natural without any of the artificial staining so common on court products of the Qianlong period and probably thereafter.

For related bottles, see Friedman 1990, no. 76 (which has a house of similar style to the black-and-white example noted above); Perry 1960, no. 90 (for a similar subject, but with the addition of a crane in the log-boat); Au Hang 1993, no. 127 (a similar subject but with the Immortal punting the log-boat); Hall 1993a, no. 21 (similar subject); White 1990, p. 25, no. 3 (same subject, but with an additional crane), and Christie’s, New York, 29 November 1990, lot 127, also subsequently offered by Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 29 April 1992, lot 549 (of similar form with an unusual design that also has cross-hatched trees).