A NEPHRITE JADE SNUFF BOTTLE1740-1840 Of archaic cong shape, primarily a cylinder within a square form, seven slightly concave horizontal bands forming a trigram-like design around the body, the pale green-brown stone with areas of russet coloring with cream inclusions and an extremely attractive soft polish overall to a lightly pitted surface, the cylindrical neck rising from very slightly rising shoulders, a small mouth, the interior well hollowed, a flat circular foot ring with a shallow concave base; stopper. 2 7/8in (7.2cm) high 1740-1840 琮式玉鼻烟壺 Provenance: A Private U.S. Collection Michael C. Hughes LLC, 10 April 2012 Literature: Raymond Li, The Medicine - Snuff Bottle Connection , Hong Kong, 1979, front cover and p. 76, fig 315 Exhibited: International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria, New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 140 For a very similar example, see Michael C. Hughes, Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Chester Beatty Library , Dublin, Baltimore, 2009, pp. 28-29, no. 14, where the author discusses the use of archaic forms in Qing snuff bottle production. The cong was an archaic burial jade that, because of its unusual form (a circle within a square), came to represent heaven and earth. However the function and meaning of these enigmatic Neolithic period ritual jades is still under discussion. The decorative motifs on the early Liasngzhu culture (c. 4,000-2,500 BCE) cong ,prise face patterns, relief bars, and circles. It was typical for Liangzhu cong to be decorated with masks on the four corners but arranged in simple horizontal bars, which themselves are sub-divided by horizontal lines and grooves. Our simplified form however still clearly exhibits its neolithic antecedent.