QING DYNASTY (1644-1911)
LENGTH (EXCLUDING STOPPER): 7.6CM
The variegated pebble is modelled in the shape of a carp with its
tail curled. The striated stone is of a milky-white tone mottled
with black and grey inclusions and russet-brown flecks, reminiscent
of the natural colour of a carp. The stained bone stopper is in the
form of a double gourd.
The carp fish ( 鯉魚 liyu ) carries a rebus meaning “abundance year
after year” ( 年年有餘 niannian youyu ), and was therefore often
used as a motif symbolic of abundance and prosperity. A celadon jade
‘double-fish’ snuff bottle from the Qing court collection and now in
the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Snuff Bottles 故宮
博物院藏文物珍品大系：鼻煙壺, Shanghai, 2002, p. 155, pl. 236. Also
among the Museum collection is a Qianlong-marked agate bowl made
from a stone of remarkably similar colour, texture and patterning,
illustrated in Gugong zhenbao 故宮珍寶, Beijing, 2004, p. 146.
There are two labels on the box, one inscribed with the characters
reading Rongzai tang 容在堂藏 (“Collection of Tolerance Hall”), and
the other dated Jiawu shuxia yu Jingzhai nanchuang
甲午暑夏於靜齋南窗 (“Composed at the Jingzhai [Quietude Studio] at
the height of the summer in the jiawu year”).
| 清代 瑪瑙雕鯉魚鼻煙壺 |
