Gerry Mack Collection
"An Eye for Quality"
Photos: Sotheby's
Gerry Proteus Mack possessed something no catalogue essay or expert consultation can teach: an innate ability to recognize quality. Collecting across more than fifty years, he built a hoard of over a thousand bottles at a time when the scholarly infrastructure that guides collectors today simply did not exist. What guided him instead was a sensitivity to form, colour, and the skill with which the two were blended by the artist, with a particular bias toward jade that was reflected in the sheer quantity of nephrite and jadeite in his collection. In 1965, Hugh Moss devoted an entire issue of his pioneering magazine Chinese Snuff Bottles to the Mack Collection alone, a distinction that speaks to the collection's standing even during Gerry's lifetime. The collection was dispersed through a series of auctions, with a significant portion offered at Sotheby's New York in 1997.
Assembled across more than fifty years by instinct alone, the Mack Collection set a standard against which subsequent private collections will forever be measured.
Additional resources
From the collection
Inside-painted crystal with ba-po and butterflies
China, 1895. Snuff bottle. Rock crystal, inside-painted with the eight broken things (ba-po) on one side and butterflies and flowers on the other, with inscription reading "Happiness in heaven and earth"; signed Ma Shaoxuan and dated winter day of yi wei year, 1895. Photo: Christie's.
Agate in the form of a purse with inscriptions
China, 1800–1880, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Agate of purse form with natural geometric veining in shades of orange, pink, green, and grey, incised with lishu inscriptions reading "Good luck for 10,000 generations" and "Good for sons — Good for grandsons"; Zhenwan mark to base infilled in red. Photo: Christie's.
Shadow agate with Liuhai and toad
China, 1770–1850, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Shadow agate with brown inclusion lightly edited to depict Liuhai tempting his mythical three-legged toad with a string of cash. Photo: Christie's.
Suzhou agate carved with bucolic scene
China, 1770–1850, Qing dynasty, Suzhou. Snuff bottle. Agate carved in relief, incorporating natural inclusions in a continuous bucolic scene of a scholar reading outside a pavilion, a boy leading an ox, a fisherman, and a labourer crossing a bridge. Photo: Christie's.
Inside-painted fluorite with carp and fish
China, 1911, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Fluorite, inside-painted with carp, fan-tailed fish, and other fish among aquatic fronds; signed Ye Zhongsan and dated lotus month of xin hai year, 1911. Photo: Christie's.
Crystal carved to simulate a Spanish Eight Reales coin
China, 1781–1810, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Rock crystal carved on both sides to simulate a Spanish Eight Reales coin, with a portrait of Charles III and the date 1781 on one side and the royal coat of arms on the other. Photo: Christie's.
Celadon and russet jade with chilong
China, 1740–1790, Qing dynasty, Master of the Rocks School. Snuff bottle. Celadon jade with brown skin and dark inclusions, carved in high relief with chilong to the narrow sides, ruyi-shaped clouds and breaking waves to the main sides, and a wave vortex to the base. Photo: Christie's.
Yellow jade double gourd with ruyi and petal lappets
China, 1750–1790, Qing dynasty, possibly Imperial Palace Workshops. Snuff bottle. Yellow jade of double gourd form, carved with a ruyi band below the mouth and petal lappets rising from the foot. Photo: Christie's.
Imperial white jade inscribed with Qianlong poem
China, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736–1795). Snuff bottle. White jade of flattened rounded rectangular form, incised on each side with an Imperial poem in clerical script with red infill; Qianlong yi chi yu ti mark and Qianlong seal. Photo: Christie's.
Serpentine carved with dragon and inscription
China, 1750–1820, Qing dynasty, possibly Imperial Workshops. Snuff bottle. Serpentine in three wavy bands of honey, moss green, and amber-red, carved in low relief with a dragon amid swirling clouds; inscribed Ling Yu Chang Sheng ("Mist comes from Cloud and Rain"). Photo: Christie's.
Black and grey jade with boy punting and longevity symbols
China, 1760–1830, Qing dynasty, Master of the Rocks School, possibly Suzhou. Snuff bottle. Black and grey jade carved in relief with a boy punting a pine tree craft on swirling water, lingzhi and peach to the ends; reverse inscribed Bi Cai Shou Tian Cang ("Gathering Heavenly Longevity Collection") with two seals. Photo: Christie's.
Apple-green jadeite of spade form
China, 1800–1900, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Semi-translucent apple-green jadeite of spade form, shot through with darker apple and emerald-green veining; superb smooth finish. Photo: Christie's.
Pale green overlay on white glass with flautist and birds
China, 1780–1820, Qing dynasty, Yangzhou Seal School. Snuff bottle. Pale pea-green glass overlay on semi-transparent white ground, carved with a flautist on rockwork among plum blossoms on one side and two long-tailed birds above rockwork with pavilion on the other; lion-mask fixed-ring handles to shoulders; seal mei hua san long. Photo: Christie's..
Pink-blush glass in the form of a fish
China, 1770–1820, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Opaque pink-blush glass naturalistically carved in the form of a fish, shading from pale pink to deeper rose, with incised scales and low-relief fins; open lips forming the mouth of the bottle. Photo: Christie's..
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