English
中文
Bottle ID: 669
MALACHITE
Date: 1800-1900
Height: 41 mm
Malachite, well hollowed, of globular circular form, the cylindrical neck with a concave mouth and with a concave, circular foot, the stone aligned so that the entire body is a series of horizontal bands of different tones of green.
Similar Examples:
None found.
Provenance:
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.
Robert Kleiner, September, 2006
Malachite has long been used for carving scholars' works of art in China. It is mentioned in the 12th century Yunlin Shipu where it is stated:
"The Stone Green of Qianshan County (Lead Mountain) in Xinzhou is produced within a deep pit. One species is fused and knotted to make the contours of mountain cliffs, but it is not very hard."
However, the majority of malachite bottles were produced in the late-Qing and Republican periods for a Western collector’s market, tending towards little hollowing and high relief carving. Surviving examples from the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century are extremely rare, and among them, the three or four known plain bottles stand out as masterpieces of the use of this attractively-marked stone. No other bottle, however, uses the natural pattern of the stone in so spectacular a fashion. A piece of neatly striated material with alternating lines of light and dark green, of a impressive variety of colors and thicknesses, was large enough for the carver to make a bottle out of this one part of the material alone.