Scent bottle with hinged cover

Art Historical Context

This delicate scent bottle with hinged cover, crafted in 1897 from nephrite jade, exemplifies the exquisite craftsmanship of late 19th-century France. Standing just 2½ inches tall and less than an inch wide, its petite scale belies the precision required to carve the tough, translucent nephrite—a mineral long revered in Asian traditions for its durability and luminous quality. Classified as jade and housed in the Metropolitan Museum of's Asian Art department, reflects Europe's fascination with Eastern materials and motifs during the fin-de-siècle era, when French artisans imported jade to crea...