A CORAL ‘BATS’ SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

of reasonably well hollowed, irregular form with an irregular flattened foot, carved in relief with a large and a small bat flying amidst formalized clouds; the coral stopper in the form of a twig

Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Lionel Rosenberg.
Sotheby’s New York, 26th November 1991, lot 164.

Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 278.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-1995.

Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 3, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 427.

There is some natural abrasions on the body, otherwise the snuff bottle is in good condition. The actual colour is consistent with the catalogue illustration.
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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 vast majority of coral carvings on a larger scale followed the form of coral's tree-like structure, encouraging willowy figures and branch-like compositions. In snuff bottles, irregular forms were encouraged by irregularly formed material, and this is a typical example, obviously following the wavy line of either the main trunk or a large branch of the original coral 'tree', allowing its natural protuberances to create the relief areas.

A delightful feature of this bottle is the use of small white patches in the material, a common occurrence in coral. Each is small and circular, and two have been used as the larger bat's eyes to extraordinary effect, while the others form the centre of formalized cloud swirls, giving them much greater energy than they would otherwise have had.

Although the stopper is ideally matched in material and colour and is of a type that may have been original, it is a common enough form for a twig-shaped coral stopper and does not sit so comfortably on the mouth as to suggest that it must be the original.