Description
Nephrite; the ovoid body with a small mouth and well hollowed apart from a solid area left above the foot, the base flattened, carved overall with a wickerwork pattern, the neck incised with a collar of artemesia leaves and the top of the mouth with a lozenge pattern, attributed to the Imperial jade workshops.
The basket-weave pattern is closely associated with the court (Treasury 1, nos. 97 and 98) and another basket-weave jade bottle in the Bloch Collection is inscribed with the hall mark Yangzheng shuwu, (‘Studio for the Cultivation of a Righteous Mind’) which is directly attributed to the Jiaqing Emperor (1796-1820), ibid., no. 149.
This bottle has other courtly attributes including a very narrow mouth and an area left unhallowed above the foot. It is of particularly elegant form with the slender oval body of completely rounded section, unlike most of the basket-weave group which tend to be of flattened oval shape. Another unusual feature is the incised decoration around the neck.
