Pebble Gentleman

1760 -1860
Height 5.9 cm Mouth 0.4 cm
Stopper: coral, carved as a twig; plastic collar

Provenance:
The Jade Collector, Los Angeles
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.
Franz Collection, Hong Kong

Published:
FranzArt "Chinese Art from the Hedda and Lutz Franz Collection", Volume One - Jade, 2010 p. 132, 133 & 295

 

Translucent greenish-white nephrite of pebble material completely covered with variegated, reddish-brown, darker brown and beige skin; entirely of natural pebble shape; carved in low relief on one main side, using a deeper vein of colouring in the skin, with an orchid growing from a rocky outcrop. Stopper: Coral carved as a twig; plastic collar. This is one of the richest colours known in the red-range of pebble skin, comparable in intensity to the Bloch pebble (see, Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles No 1, Jade, no. 12) which may be from the same workshop. Other pebbles are known, one in the Franz Collection, by the same hand, where a small flaw in the pebble skin has dictated the decoration. The orchid is an emblem of the gentleman.

Alexander Whittaker