Period:Qing dynasty Production date:18thC
Materials:jade
Technique:carved
Subjects:landscape
Dimensions:Height: 5.30 centimetres Width: 4 centimetres
Description:
Suzhou white jade snuff bottle.
IMG
![图片[1]-snuff-bottle BM-2022-3034.233-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Qin dynasty/Jades/649_.jpg)
Comments:The even coloured pebble carved in relief to depict a scholar seated in a continuous mountainous landscape below pine tree, stopper carved in coral. Signed Zigang. See Rawson 1995, p.401,cat.no.29.15 18th century: This snuff bottle retains the shape of a pebble. On one side in low relief carving, is a sage seated under a pine tree; on the other is a scene of mountains and clouds. The bottle has a small conical cap and spoon. The bottom is flat. The bottle carries the signature Zigang, an abbreviation of Lu Zigang, the famous late Ming jade carver. Scant textual reference links Lu Zigang with Suzhou in the Ming dynasty. The present bottle, however, belongs to a date later than the sixteenth or seventeenth century, when he is thought to have been active. Indeed, bottles were only explicitly used for snuff from the seventeenth century, after the introduction of the habit from Europe. The present bottle may of course have been made for some other purpose and then converted into a snuff bottle by the addition of a spoon. The side decorated with a scene of sage and pine with mountains shows the conventional metaphors for wisdom in retirement and endurance.
Materials:jade
Technique:carved
Subjects:landscape
Dimensions:Height: 5.30 centimetres Width: 4 centimetres
Description:
Suzhou white jade snuff bottle.
IMG
Comments:The even coloured pebble carved in relief to depict a scholar seated in a continuous mountainous landscape below pine tree, stopper carved in coral. Signed Zigang. See Rawson 1995, p.401,cat.no.29.15 18th century: This snuff bottle retains the shape of a pebble. On one side in low relief carving, is a sage seated under a pine tree; on the other is a scene of mountains and clouds. The bottle has a small conical cap and spoon. The bottom is flat. The bottle carries the signature Zigang, an abbreviation of Lu Zigang, the famous late Ming jade carver. Scant textual reference links Lu Zigang with Suzhou in the Ming dynasty. The present bottle, however, belongs to a date later than the sixteenth or seventeenth century, when he is thought to have been active. Indeed, bottles were only explicitly used for snuff from the seventeenth century, after the introduction of the habit from Europe. The present bottle may of course have been made for some other purpose and then converted into a snuff bottle by the addition of a spoon. The side decorated with a scene of sage and pine with mountains shows the conventional metaphors for wisdom in retirement and endurance.
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![[Qing Dynasty] British female painter—Elizabeth Keith, using woodblock prints to record China from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China—1915-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-191x300.png)
