清十八 / 十九世紀 巧色瑪瑙鋪獸首鼻煙壺 或御製

extremely well hollowed, with a concave lip and a recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding flat footrim, carved with mask-and-ring handles; the tourmaline stopper with a vinyl collar

Alice B. McReynolds 收藏
洛杉磯蘇富比1984年10月3日，編號97

Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷2，香港，1998年，編號295

The snuff bottle is overall in good condition. There is a tiny chip to the inner lip and a faint natural hairline flaw in the stone across the footrim. The actual colour is slightly more greyish brown, less pale compared to the catalogue photo.
"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."

The mask-and-ring handles bring this bottle into the category of relief carving. They are of the most common style of the eighteenth century. It falls into the category of banded-agate bottles, which were a common type for probably a considerable part of the snuff-bottle period. Bands of concentric lines are not only standard to agate, they define it, and in large, evenly formed crypto-crystalline masses, they commonly create large enough areas that if cut through at the appropriate angle, a bottle is formed with plain chalcedony above and below a roughly horizontal band, a band that was supposed to be reminiscent of the broad belt worn by an official. The large numbers of such bottles attest both to the commonness of the material and to the popular appeal of what was done to it. In the case of this bottle, the markings are sufficiently unusual and dynamic to consider their ink-play potential as, perhaps, a landscape.

The likely date for this bottle is the second half of the Qianlong period or the early nineteenth century.