A DECAGONAL CRYSTAL 'FLOWER HEAD' SNUFF BOTTLE QING DYNASTY, 18TH / 19TH CENTURY

The Hon. Irene Austin, The Fernhill Park Collection, formed between 1944 and 1977.
Chinese Porcelain Co., New York, 1991.

Chinese snuff bottles from the Fernhill Park collection, Chinese Porcelain Co., New York, 1991, no. 164.
Robert Kleiner, Boda Yang, and Clarence F. Shangraw, Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 204.
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-1995.

Robert Kleiner, 'Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection. Hong Kong Museum of Art', Oriental Art, Spring 1994, p. 36.
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. 235.

Surface scratches and minor nibbles to the edges of the decagonal sides. Minute insignificant nibbling to the sides of the carved petals on both sides. One of the narrow sides has a crack-like flaw deep inside, clearly visible to the eye.
"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."

A subtle extension of the art of faceting is represented here. While obviously derived from the same impetus as Sale 5, lot 67, although in this case it is more complex because it is based on a ten-sided form rather than an eight-sided one, the design concept takes faceting a stage further by using it for representational ends, albeit rather formalised. formalise The design here is intended as a flower head, and probably a chrysanthemum, although it is abstracted to such an extent that it could equally well represent a peony, daisy, or any number of other flowers. The circle in the middle and the radiating petals, which are scalloped with a concave depression in contrast to the rest of the faceting on the bottle, leave us in no doubt about its botanical intentions, even if the precise flower is still open to question.

There is a series of bottles of this basic design, all decagonal in the main profile, and all possibly court products. Another still more complex example is the crystal bottle, Sale 3, lot 99, which is similar to the Marian Mayer example (Hall 1989, no. 38), and there are two more crystal examples, one almost identical to this one, in the Salting Bequest at the Victoria and Albert Museum, acquired in 1910, (see White 1990, Pl. 42, nos. 2 and 3). From the same collection there is a chalcedony example, (Pl. 28, no. 1) and several others are known in a distinctive blue-grey jadeite, one of which was a favourite of Bob Stevens (Stevens 1976, no. 1009). Another, illustrated in Hui and Sin 1994, no. 52 (formerly in the Eric Young Collection) is also illustrated, along with two other examples from the Young Collection, in Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 28 October 1993, lots 1222–1224. They are also known in white nephrite (see, for instance, Sotheby’s New York, 22nd September 1995, lot 88).

The jadeite examples suggest a mid-Qing period for the design, since jadeite is unlikely to have been available in any quantity prior to the last decades of the eighteenth century. The variety of different materials, all of the same form, strengthen the imperial attribution for the whole group, since the manufacture of a series of bottles all of the same design suggests production for the court. A private workshop would have been far more likely to specialise in a narrower range of materials. However, at the same time, it may imply a distant imperial facility, since it is becoming clearer that there may have been a tendency for distant facilities to produce sets of bottles.

The formal integrity of this bottle is exemplary and the hollowing excellent. It is unusually thin for a faceted crystal bottle, bearing in mind that where the interior hollowing follows a curved profile, the invariable standard, the raised angles of the faceting are not what determine the extent of thinness of the hollowing, but the centre of each flat plane. The roughened interior is a matter of choice, and were it not for the fact that the two in the Victoria and Albert Museum have the same frosted finish, one might be tempted to assume that the reason was to hide minor flaws in the material here, whereas the truth is almost certainly that with a faceted form and a highly polished interior, all sides would be seen simultaneously in the empty bottle, and the design would become confused.