Bottle ID: 118

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SILHOUETTE, BIRD AND TREES

Date: 1750-1860

Height: 57 mm

Agate, very well hollowed, of flattened squared form with sloping shoulders and a neatly carved footrim, the honey colored stone with dark brown mottled inclusions, minimally polished on one side to depict a mountainous tree-filled landscape with a bird perched on a rock under a leafy tree.

Similar Examples:

Stevens, Bob C. The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, p. 140, no. 522.
Moss, Hugh M. Chinese Snuff Bottles of the Silica or Quartz Group, 1971, p. 39, no. 89.
Low, Denis S. K. Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect III, 2007, p. 272, no. 237.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
The Dick Hardy Collection

Published:

Lawrence, Clare. Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Dick Hardy Collection and Other Sources, 1991, p. 14, no. 17

This agate bottle represents the best of the 'ink-play' carvers - those artisans who were able to choose a point in the stone where the design flows most naturally with minimal cutting and polishing. By looking at the surface of the bottle as though it may become a painting, the carver makes sense of the stone's inclusions to evoke a classic, almost mystical, scene of favored subjects of both paintings and bottles.

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