A White jade snuff bottle with floral medallions
1730-1820
Of flattened tapering baluster shape, the body carved with eight circular medallions, two overlapping, each with differing petal-form designs, standing on a shallow-scooped oval foot, the color of even tone throughout.
2 1/2in (6.3cm) high, stopper
Footnotes:
1780-1820年 白玉團花紋鼻煙壺

For an almost identical bottle both in shape and decoration, see Christie's, New York, 17-18th March 2016, lot 1700. Described as probably Imperial and probably Palace Workshops, Beijing, the bottle had been in the collection of Enid and Brodie Lodge (1880-1967). It is highly unusual to find this design on a jade snuff bottle, though several glass overlay and porcelain bottles do carry this form of decoration. It is more often encountered in Imperial 'famille rose' porcelain vessels (bowls and jars) from the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods. For an example see Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colors, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2008, p. 248, no. 227.

For a similar flattened oviform jade bottle, presumably made for the Court, see Snuff Bottles from the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991, p. 155, nos. 135. Three others, of cylindrical form but with comparable high shoulders, are illustrated, p. 151, nos. 124-26.

The flowerhead roundels appear to derive their origins from a Japanese aesthetic of heraldic symbols (mon), seen primarily in lacquerware and textiles. The use of these symbols in kosometsuke ceramics of the late Ming is well known.