From the Fire
Probably imperial, 1750-1840
Height: 6.6 cm
Mouth/lip (the latter measured across the circular section): 0.5/2.0 cm
Stopper: jadeite
Provenance:
Paul Braga Collection
Bonham’s, Hong Kong, 24 November, 2012, lot 137
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.
Associated paraphernalia:
A second matching snuff bottle.
A pair of calcified, burnt nephrite of pebble material bottles with an indication of some original skin; with a flat lip with one part of the circular lip flattened to correspond with the one flattened side of the bottle, and recessed flat, elongated-oval foot surrounded by a protruding flat elongated –oval foot rim, also with one flattened edge.
This pair of bottles would have started life as white nephrite with brown skin on the flattened sides, hence the flattened form to retain the skin from a large pebble of white nephrite. After having been made, however, they have been through a fire of sufficient intensity to calcify the nephrite to this even, chicken-bone colour and texture. The slightly browner trace of the skin area still shows, but most of the colour has been transformed in the fire. Whether the fire was deliberate or not, of course, is another matter. If accidentaly, they are remarkably evenly heated, and the surface is not as desiccated as one would expect, although this could have been achieved by subsequent polishing of the surface to improve it.
