A very fine jadeite 'squirrel and melon' snuff bottle18th/19th century
Exquisitely carved in the form of a melon borne on leafy branches with two bushy-tailed squirrels clambering over curling leaves, the translucent stone of an apple-green and an icy-white colour, stopper. 5.6cm (2 1/8in) high (2).注脚十八/十九世紀 翠玉雕瓜果松樹紋鼻煙壺

Provenance:
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 28 April 1993, lot 536
The Angela Chua Collection

來源：
香港蘇富比，1993年4月28日，拍品編號536
蔡劉木蘭收藏

Squirrels have great reproductive power and the gourd plant bears fruits that contain plenty of seeds, hence the motif is associated with the wish for many offspring and continuity of the family. See an example of a jadeite 'melon' snuff bottle illustrated in Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991, p.189, no.227.

翠玉質，隨形圓雕苦瓜形，一隻松鼠遊戲其間，瓜皮稜角，分分鮮明，花葉藤蔓隨玉色而變換，松鼠隨石形而遊走，匠心獨具。

參考一件台北故宮藏翠玉瓜形鼻煙壺，見《故宮鼻煙壺》，台北，1991年，頁189，編號227。