清十八 / 十九世紀 白玉雕竹筍形鼻煙壺

Hugh M. Moss Ltd.，香港，1987年

Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷1，香港，1996年，編號67

Miniscule and insignificant nibbles to the inner lip. Otherwise, good condition.
"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."

As with Sale 1, lot 64, the mouth of this snuff bottle is on the only end wide enough to accommodate a mouth, which means that that the bottom of the bamboo shoot is the top of the bottle. The same is true of the unique Bloch set of magnolia-bud snuff bottles (Sale 6, lot 138).

A bamboo shoot is of varied colour as it sprouts from the ground; this and the finely ribbed protecting leaves that make up the outer shoot afford the carver of a bamboo-shoot form an ideal opportunity to either disguise or make positive use of otherwise unattractive flaws in the stone. Flawed nephrite was regularly used at court (and almost certainly elsewhere as well), encouraging the selection of this form when dealing with such material.

The carving and design of the exterior detail are excellent. Each separate leaf is neatly edged with a narrow border, giving some textural variation to the formal lines that make up the leaves and adding considerable weight to the shape of each leaf as one of the principal formal elements of the design. The lines of the leaves are superbly carved with great confidence and, curving in their various different directions for each separate leaf, create a powerful and complex pattern to augment the formal abstraction of the leaves themselves. Each leaf is then varied at the tip with a curve to one side or the other, creating the third main formal element (other than the overall shape of the bottle), which makes the design so fascinating. As a treatment of this particular subject, it is of entirely different conception to Sale 6, lot 171, where all the leaves point in the same direction, towards the tip.