Catalogue entry no. 520 by Max Loehr:
520 Small Receptacle
Mottled buff and olive-green jade, dimly translucent at the edges, with a few cracks and a small eroded area. The object, which is surprisingly heavy and carved with exceeding care, appears to be sui generis . Its shape and size remind one of an eighteenth-century snuff bottle, but it is hollowed out less than half its height. The cross-section is rectangular, with concave corners; the wider sides taper slightly. A sharply recessed, straight collar, oval in cross-section, projects from the wider end of the body. The fact that the surface of this end and the rim of the collar are the only areas which are finished less meticulously and left almost undecorated may suggest that the object’s intended position was with the collar and orifice downward. What thus corresponds to the top face is filled with a pattern of relief curls on a grid plan. The same pattern recurs on the narrow panels of the four sides. These panels are separated by vertical bands of contrasting textures: finely incised chevrons in the grooved middle of each side, and similarly incised geometric motifs in squares filling the concave corners. On the wall of the collar are engraved designed reminiscent of t’ao-t’ieh masks with cross-hatched and striated parts. Late Eastern Chou.
