Bottle ID: 408

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MACARONI AGATE POT

Date: 1800-1860

Height: 37 mm

 

"Macaroni" agate, of squat cylindrical 'jarlet' form, with rounded shoulders and an indented circular foot, carved continuously in relief using the natural inclusions of beige, gray and white with a garden scene with plantains, bamboo, pine and leafy trees by rocks and a bamboo trellis fence near which a fat cat contentedly sits. Together with its original matching lid.

 

Similar Examples:

The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, October 9 -13, 1991, no.169, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Fernhill Park Collection.

 

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
The Jade Dragon, MI

 

 

 

 

 

Hugh Moss states that snuff pots, squat cylindrical forms with very wide mouths, were an invention of the nineteenth century when it became fashionable to put flowers in the mouth of a bottle overnight to scent the snuff. These are referred to in the commentaries to the Yonglu xianjie of ceramics, where a number are known, all of the Daoguang period or later. However the Qianlong Archives of the Zaobanchu, the Imperial Household Department, refer to both snuff bottles and snuff jars when they sent their manufacturing orders to the glass workshops, indicating that these were made as early as the mid-Qianlong period. Whilst they were therefore made in both glass and, subsequently, porcelain they are rare in other materials. This is one of the most spectacular known, and the only one in macaroni-agate, with a superb and imaginative use of the natural markings in the stone to dictate the design. Another material, rarely seen, is the example from the Fernhill Park Collection which is made from hair crystal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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