AN 'EGGPLANT' JADE SNUFF BOTTLE
Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, 1750-1800
The even white stone carved in the form of a ripe eggplant with a spinach-green jade calyx, very well-hollowed; with a spinach-green stopper resembling the stalk of the vegetable.
2 1/2in (6.2cm) long
Footnotes:
1750-1820 玉質茄子形鼻煙壺一件
御製 或為宮廷作坊製

Provenance:
Jin Hing & Co., Los Angeles, CA., October 22, 2009
Joan and Ted Dorf Collection, no. 161

Exhibited:
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD., September 30 – December 9, 2018

This bottle is one of a group of bottles made in sets of either ten or twenty for the imperial court. The National Palace Museum in Taipei has one such complete set in its collection. Individual bottles in private hands are more scarce but a similar example is illustrated in Moss, Graham and Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 1, Jade, 1998, no. 70.

Excellent condition with matching stopper. The stone is a brilliant white color with an exquisite spinach-jade calyx; one of the best of its type.