Scu, China, carving, jade

The bottle is an oval flattened flask form with shoulders sloping up to a long cylindrical neck. It has a hinged bulbous stopper.
The bottle is made from nephrite jade, dark green, with decoration carved in relief, gold mounts and a gold stopper.
The decoration depicts a grasshopper on a lotus leaf and on the reverse a grasshopper on perhaps millet. The metal mounts are moulded in the form of millet or corn and the foot is formed by metal mount.
Engraved with 'G. R. Sandoz' and inscribed '2506' there is also an eagle's head warranty mark.
This old jade snuff bottle was embellished with gold mounts in Paris at the workshop of G. R. Sandoz some time after Gustave Roger Sandoz succeeded his father Gustave in the family business in 1891, probably for use as a scent bottle.

H. L. Florence Bequest

The attribution date is the date the bottle was constructed without the metal mounts.

Snuff is powdered tobacco, usually blended with aromatic herbs or spices. The habit of snuff-taking spread to China from the West during the 17th century and became established in the 18th century. People generally carried snuff in a small bottle. By the 20th century these bottles had become collectors' items, owing to the great variety of materials and decorative techniques used in their production.

C.1278-1917