TABATIERE EN AGATE SILHOUETTE CHINE, ECOLE OFFICIELLE, 1780-1880

The eagle (ying) represents greatness in the individual, and combined with a pine tree, implies the wish that such a great man will live a long life. This is a popular image from the silhouette group of the Official School.

For a series of silhouette agate bottles, all with bird designs, still in the Imperial Collection, see Chang Lin-sheng, Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991, pp. 233 and 234, nos. 324, 327, and 328.
Compare also with Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 2 part 1, Quartz, p. 266, no. 278.
A silhouette agate bottle from the Official School carved with a monkey, from the J & J collection, was sold at Christie's New York, 17 September 2008, lot 37.