A Milky Emerald-Green Jadeite Snuff Bottle, Probably Imperial, 1770-1830. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2013

 The well-hollowed bottle is of flattened, ovoid form. The softly polished stone is suffused with pale, milky emerald-green cloud-like mottling. 2 1/16 in. (5.3 cm.) high, rose quartz stopper. Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000

Provenance: Hugh Moss, London, 1987.

Exhibited: Taipei Gallery, New York, Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1-29 October 1993, p. 15.

Notes: While jadeite varies in tone from emerald green to lavender to red, the material used here is quite unusual and has a distinctive, rather milky emerald-green color and textural pattern. There is a small group of bottles of this distinctive stone, all presumably from a single boulder, which are discussed by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 1, Jade, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 472-3, no. 187 (carved in the form of a melon). Other plain examples of similar shape include one illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang,The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, Vol. I, New York, 1993, p. 127, no. 64 and subsequently sold in these rooms, 29 March 2006, lot 83, and in H. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, London, 1971, p. 67, no. 4.

Christie's. The Hildegard Schonfeld Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles. 21 March 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.