Bottle ID: 216

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CARVED, MYTHICAL BEASTS

Date: 1750-1860

Height: 64 mm

Agate, very well hollowed, of flattened squared form with rounded shoulders and a neatly carved footrim, of honey tones with rich orange and opaque ochre inclusions, carved in relief on one side with two Buddhist lions playing with brocade balls beside a rock, a bat swooping in the clouds above, the reverse carved with craggy rocks.

Similar Examples:

Chang Lin-sheng. Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 1991, p. 231, no. 320.
Stevens, Bob C. The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, p. 143, no. 543.
Low, Denis S. K. More Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, 2002, pp. 244-245, no. 227.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.

Although linked to the large school of carving designated as ‘Group B’ by Hugh Moss in Chinese Snuff Bottles of the Silica or Quartz Group, this bottle is of a distinctive style of carving, with an unusually imaginative use of the natural material. There is still no clear indication of where any of this group might have been made.

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