165 - A CARVED CAMEO CHALCEDONY ‘LOTUS’ SNUFF BOTTLE OFFICIAL SCHOOL, 1780-1850

A CARVED CAMEO CHALCEDONY ‘LOTUS’ SNUFF BOTTLE OFFICIAL SCHOOL, 1780-1850 To Be Sold Without Reserve Of well-hollowed, rounded-rectangular form with a slightly compressed cylindrical neck, slightly concave lip and recessed, slightly convex oval foot surrounded by a protruding, broad, flattened, oval foot rim, carved, using the natural russet markings in the stone as a cameo relief of an egret flying above a lotus pond with flowers, pods and leaves all shown rising from formalized waves carved in the ground colour, inscribed in regular script in a cartouche, also in the relief colour, Lian wei chunzi (‘Lotus [stands] for the gentleman’) Height: 5.9cm Provenance: The Avon Collection, Amazon Rooks, (prior to 1970) Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 30th August 2005, (a copy of the original invoice available) For a discussion of the Official School of hard-stone carving, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 2, Quartz, under no. 258, where the many subsequent examples are all of the school. This comes from a mid-Qing group from the school which often used this distinctive translucent grey material with yellow-ochre relief, and sometimes incorporated titles, as here, suggesting that the lotus be associated with the ideal gentleman. Because of the variation in the darker colouring, usually striated with more opaque material, these are often particularly impressive with transmitted light Ω This Lot was imported from outside of the UK, under the Temporary Admission regime 5% import VAT will be charged on the ‘hammer” and 20% VAT will be charged on the ‘buyer’s premium