A CHINESE WHITE JADE INSCRIBED SNUFF BOTTLE

18TH CENTURY OR LATER

Of flattened form, the rectangular body surmounted by a short cylindrical neck, finely incised to each side with four lines of calligraphy, the inscriptions heightened with gilt, all raised on a short oval foot, the stone with some pale mottling and inclusions, 6.3cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Jasper Rose (1930-2019). Rose was educated at King's College, Cambridge and later co-authored the 1964 book 'Camford Observed: An Investigation of the Ancient Universities in the Modern World', which was an account of university life at Oxford and Cambridge. He was a founding faculty member of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a professor of art and history. Rose worked at UCSC's Cowell College for many years and then briefly at Porter College before retiring in 1986 as an emeritus professor. He passed away in 2019 in Bath, where he had lived for some years before his death.

One side of the snuff bottle is inscribed with the poem Lu Zhai ('Deer Park') by the Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei, whilst the poem on the other side is Zhong Nan Wang Yu Xue ('On Seeing the Snow Peak of Zhongnan') by the Tang poet Zu Yong.