A BANDED AGATE SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Robert Kleiner, London, 1992.

Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 198.

A tiny chip from the outer footrim. Natural flaws running vertically from the lip down the neck, another down one side on the bottle and one across the foot. Good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In a large geode or rock cavern, chalcedony can crystallise with areas of relatively regular banding large enough for a snuff bottle, or even for bigger objects. The so-called ‘banded agates’ where relatively even bands of different colour encircle the bottle horizontally in this way (or, much less often, vertically) are the result of cutting a cross-section from the outer edge of the geode or cavern, which is one place where chalcedony forms. In theory it might have been possible to get a fairly large number of somewhat similar bottles from a single large section of agate material; this little bottle represents only a small section of what must have been a very much larger piece of material, judging from the broadness and straightness of the banding. Indeed, it is this thickness and homogeneity of the banding, rather than its unusually small size, that sets this vessel apart from other banded agate snuff bottles.

The transparent golden-brown material of the shoulders is separated by a short series of dark and light bands, but the main part of the banding is made up of only two broad bands of visually almost homogeneous colour enclosed again at the base by a further narrow band of darker brown. It is both unusual and extremely effective. For the more usual type of material in this range, see Sale 7, lot 51, and for a rare example both in colouring and the vertical setting of the bands, Sale 4, lot 36.

However unusual the broadness of the bands, and however many similar bottles might have been made from adjacent cross-sections, one of the features that lifts this bottle into an extraordinary class is a freak accident of nature. On one side there is a flaw in the material, apparently caused by a fracture in the quartz as it was crystallising, with a distinct pattern of micro-crystalline markings along its length. The result resembles a flying bat, wings outstretched and reaching beyond the central paler areas of banding, the head with darker markings which could be read as facial features. The creature flies horizontally around the banding, transforming the paler, broad bands into mist and even slightly affecting the swirl of the area through which it passes.

This is verging on the miniature for a snuff bottle but lacks none of the formal precision of its larger counterparts of the same basic shape. The hollowing, however, is slightly fan-shaped at the shoulders, suggesting that it may be from the period when standards of hollowing seem to have slipped. Formally it is a miniature equivalent of the broad group of rounded rectangular bottles discussed under Sale 2, lot 42 that spanned the mid-Qing period and probably beyond, but this may be one of those made during the early or even mid-nineteenth century.