A CHALCEDONY 'DUCK, PARROT AND CATERPILLAR' SNUFF BOTTLE OFFICIAL SCHOOL, QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

Collection of Gerd Lester, 1986.

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1987, cat. no. 161.
Kleine Schätze aus China. Snuff bottles—Sammlung von Mary und George Bloch erstmals in Österreich, Creditanstalt, Vienna, 1993.

Gerd Lester, 'Artistry in a Bottle', Antiques World, September 1980, p. 66.
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. 274.

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."

The design in this bottle, as in so many of the type, has been taken from a flat sheet of darker colouring in the chalcedony, part of which suggested the design but much of which has been edited at the surface to refine it. This allows the carver a certain amount of flexibility in what he chooses to depict. It is perhaps the commonest combination in the field, blending silhouette work (with significant editing) and shadow work (with minimal editing).

The duck here is a powerful image controlled to a considerable extent by surface editing, apparent from the side view, where the area of the duck is quite irregular in order to maximise the dark but thin plane of colour. On the other side of this bottle the design of a parrot on a branch, curled around his perch, waiting for his caterpillar lunch to arch a little closer, is quite natural and does not disturb the surface integrity of the bottle at all.

The stopper here is again a little overpowering by modern standards, but is an impressive early example. Coral was highly valued as jewellery in Mongolia, and there was apparently a local preference for oversized coral stoppers, sometimes to the point of being as much as a quarter to a third of the height of the bottle, usually set in metal collars, and looking like stovepipe hats. Such stoppers obviously took on greater importance as independent statements in a culture that valued coral so highly. The taller ones look rather foolish by the aesthetic standards of today’s collectors, but at the time the size of the coral would have been a status symbol in itself and viewed quite differently. To this day in Beijing, most dealers prefer to match their finer bottles with these exaggeratedly tall coral stoppers.