A black jet snuff bottle

Qianlong period, 乾隆 1736 – 1795
Height: 7.7 cm.

Black jet, the bottle of tall hexagonal section with a short cylindrical neck and a recessed foot, the panels finely incised with blossoming plum branches.

Hard jet is a form of lignite and a geological organic material composed of fossilized wood from millions of years ago, resulting from high carbon compression and salt water. A similar hexagonal bottle with a Qianlong nian zhi mark is illustrated in Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles: Masterpieces from the Rietberg Museum Zurich (Zurich: 1993), cat. no. 29. Robert Hall writes that "the bottle, my favourite from the collection, has unusual form for a bottle made from this material." A branch of blossoming plum is a wish for the Five Blessings: longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue and a peaceful death. Each of the five petals of the plum flower represents a blessing. See Terese Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meaning in Chinese Art (San Francisco: 2006), no. 1.8.1.

Provenance 起源: Linda F. Crawley

Published 发布: Asiantiques, A Fascination for Miniatures: The Linda F. Crawley Collection of Chinese Snuff (2008), cat. no. 104

Ref. 817820

Price on request