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Lot Essay
For a discussion on a series of likely Imperial gourd- and other fruit-form snuff bottles made mostly in jade during the eighteenth century, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles , Vol. 1, Jade, nos. 61-65. The style of carving here links this bottle with the series.
The gourd was a popular shape for small carvings and bottles because of its tactile qualities when held in the palm of the hand, and for its auspicious symbolism and its association with Daoism. According to T. T. Bartholomew in "Symbolism and Rebuses on Snuff Bottles," in P. Friedman, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Pamela R. Lessing Friedman Collection, pp. 9-20, the combination of gourds and tendrils (zisun wanda) forms a rebus for "ceaseless generations" or "may you have numerous descendants," making it a very popular decorative motif.
A related white jade bottle carved as either an aubergine or gourd in the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum is illustrated by M. C. Hughes, The Blair Bequest, p. 38, no. 1. Another example, still in the Qing Court Collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Snuff Bottles-The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, p. 149, no. 224. For other jade bottles of fruit or vegetable form made for the Court and still in the Imperial Collection, see Chang Lin-sheng, Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, pp. 156-60, nos. 136-50.
The gourd was a popular shape for small carvings and bottles because of its tactile qualities when held in the palm of the hand, and for its auspicious symbolism and its association with Daoism. According to T. T. Bartholomew in "Symbolism and Rebuses on Snuff Bottles," in P. Friedman, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Pamela R. Lessing Friedman Collection, pp. 9-20, the combination of gourds and tendrils (zisun wanda) forms a rebus for "ceaseless generations" or "may you have numerous descendants," making it a very popular decorative motif.
A related white jade bottle carved as either an aubergine or gourd in the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum is illustrated by M. C. Hughes, The Blair Bequest, p. 38, no. 1. Another example, still in the Qing Court Collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Snuff Bottles-The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, p. 149, no. 224. For other jade bottles of fruit or vegetable form made for the Court and still in the Imperial Collection, see Chang Lin-sheng, Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, pp. 156-60, nos. 136-50.