A BASANITE SNUFF BOTTLE LATE QING DYNASTY

Zhirou Zhai Collection, Hong Kong.
Hugh M. Moss Ltd., 1993.

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. 209.

The overall condition is excellent.
"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."

This appears to be the variety of quartz that is a homogeneous black jasper known as touchstone, or basanite. It certainly functions as touchstone, which earned its name because of its ability to allow the knowledgeable to test the quality of gold or silver by rubbing it on the stone. A streak of metal is left on the material, the colour of which indicates its quality.

This is not a material commonly found in the snuff-bottle arts, and only one or two other examples are known. It was not, apparently, a common material in China in any case, since it is unknown outside the snuff-bottle world. Extant basanite snuff bottles may all date from the second half of the Qing dynasty, the material perhaps having been imported in response to its Western use and incorporated into the snuff-bottle arts only in the nineteenth century.

This bottle’s formal resemblance to a number of early-nineteenth-century Yangzhou glass overlay bottles may be significant. Although the dished narrow-side panels might have been derived from earlier models, their application to a tall, thin, rounded-rectangular form seems to echo the popular Yangzhou shape with the typical, exaggeratedly-long rings of Yangzhou mask handles, which can sometimes fill the entire narrow side, as these panels do.

Yangzhou was a major stone-carving centre, but as yet no stone snuff bottles can be identified as a product of the town. If there is any significance in the similarity of shape, it need not rest entirely on the possibility of this having been made at Yangzhou; it could also indicate that the Yangzhou glass bottles had become popular by the time this was made and had begun to influence snuff-bottle form in general.