Bottle ID: 199

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SILHOUETTE, BANDED

Date: 1750-1860

Height: 57 mm

Agate, superbly hollowed, of bulbous form with rounded shoulders and a slightly concave foot, of pale honey tones with mottled darker brown inclusions running concentrically around the bottle resembling strokes of paint, and broken by a dark brown inclusion depicting a paint brush.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 113
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. I, p. 214, no. 127.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1998, Vol. 2, Part 1, pp. 272-274, no. 280.
Kleiner Robert W. L. Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of John Ault, 1990, p. 48, no. 80.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Christies, New York, October 18, 1993, lot 162
The Reif Collection

Eye agate is described by gemologists as agate with banded concentric rings and further investigation shows this to be what snuff bottle collectors term ‘banded agate’, which technically makes no real sense as a definition as any agate has to be banded.

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