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Lot Essay
While the finest gemstones of aquamarine are of flawless blue color, pieces large enough to be fashioned into a snuff bottle are never flawless. As seen here, the material is permeated with natural flaws, which refract the light and add a complementary shimmering effect to the material.
The majority of aquamarine snuff bottles date from the late-Qing or twentieth century, but the material was popular at Court during the second half of the eighteenth century and into the early-nineteenth and there is a group of Imperial snuff bottles in the material from that period. This example was previously thought to have been part of later production, but further study of the earlier group now allows for its inclusion. Among this early production, it is an unusual example in that it is decorated with a four-clawed mang dragon as opposed to the usual chi dragons more commonly found on early aquamarine bottles. The number of claws indicates that it was made for nobles permitted to wear such insignia (hereditary titles such as beile, beizi, gulun efu, zhenguogong, fuguogong, or heshuo efu) or commoners conferred with the top three degrees of nobility (gong, hou, or bo - duke, marquis or earl respectively).
For the re-assessment of semi-precious stone snuff bottles, and for a range of examples from the collection of Mary and George Bloch, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 3, Stones other than Jade and Quartz, pp. 108-21, nos. 408-12.
The majority of aquamarine snuff bottles date from the late-Qing or twentieth century, but the material was popular at Court during the second half of the eighteenth century and into the early-nineteenth and there is a group of Imperial snuff bottles in the material from that period. This example was previously thought to have been part of later production, but further study of the earlier group now allows for its inclusion. Among this early production, it is an unusual example in that it is decorated with a four-clawed mang dragon as opposed to the usual chi dragons more commonly found on early aquamarine bottles. The number of claws indicates that it was made for nobles permitted to wear such insignia (hereditary titles such as beile, beizi, gulun efu, zhenguogong, fuguogong, or heshuo efu) or commoners conferred with the top three degrees of nobility (gong, hou, or bo - duke, marquis or earl respectively).
For the re-assessment of semi-precious stone snuff bottles, and for a range of examples from the collection of Mary and George Bloch, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 3, Stones other than Jade and Quartz, pp. 108-21, nos. 408-12.