Bottle ID: 461

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THREE-LEGGED TOAD

Date: 1780-1850

Height: 61 mm

Soapstone, of opaque mottled dark brown tones, well hollowed and naturalistically carved in the form of a squatting three-legged mythical toad.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 452
Crane Collection nos. 298, 375 and 470
Lawrence, Clare. Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom - The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1996, pp. 84-85, no. 36.152.
Hughes, Michael C. The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Chinese Snuff Bottles, 2009, pp. 36-37, no. 22.
Hidden Treasures of the Dragon - Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collections od Humphrey K. F. Hui, Margaret Polak and Christopher C. H. Sin, 1992, p. 101, no. 203.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
Jon Bloodworth, CA
A private California Collection

There are many varieties and colors of soapstone, a very soft material, which predominately was mined from peaks surrounding the village of Shoushan in Fujian Province. The literati classified soapstone according to the general area where it was mined, then by the specific location and then by its color or its specific characteristics. Soapstone often resembles nephrite and can be easily confused with it, being of the range of colors asscosiated with nephrite. It is also evident that the same workshops which fashioned jade bottles produced bottles in alternative materials. Indeed this example which is part of a specific group of animal form bottles illustrates this admirably. This stone, rather than the usual white nephrite, is a wonderfully mottled dark brown color and was clearly the inspiration for the carver as it is so reminiscent of a toad's skin.

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