Bottle ID: 362

< Previous page

SILHOUETTE, WITH SUN

Date: 1750-1860

Height: 68.5 mm

Agate, very well hollowed of flattened rectangular form with rounded shoulders and a neatly carved footrim, the honey colored stone with golden and dark brown inclusions carved in relief on one side with a cat curled beside a rock under a tree gazing up at a butterfly, the reverse with a sun in the sky below a cloud with three goats seated on a rock and looking toward the sun.

 

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 927
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. I, p. 245, no. 152.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1998, Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 312-313, no. 297.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.

This example is a part of the large Official School of hardstone carving. It is exceptional for the group in terms of the sheer quality of the carving with its remarkable plasticity of technique and perfection of finish combined with imaginative use of the material. The level of genius of the entire work is represented best in the use of the pale area around the sun acting as a natural aurora.

< Back to full list