清十八 / 十九世紀 土黃石英石鼻煙壺

Robert Kleiner，倫敦，1994年

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211

Abrasions to both sides from wear. One minute and insignificant nibble to the inner lip.
"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."

Quartziteis a term that has not been much used among snuff-bottle enthusiasts, with the result that bottles in this material often tend to get called by the wrong name. Deprived of its own independent weight as a distinct material, it tends to be drawn by the gravitational pull of the chalcedony group more often than not. Visually it is distinguished by a finely granular appearance that seems minutely and evenly speckled under a magnifying glass. The colour is usually of a yellowish or beige tone, but it is also found in other colours, including grey, almost black, yellow, green, and richly speckled brown.

Another feature of quartzite is that much of it does not take the superb and entirely even and glossy polish of the rest of the quartz family, tending towards a slightly more granular surface that, under a magnifying glass, is seen to be minutely pitted all over, whereas the surface of polished crystal and chalcedony is completely smooth. It also seems more susceptible to subsequent wear.

This is a unique example for the snuff-bottle world in that it is finely and relatively evenly striated, like agate, beneath a series of oval markings cleverly disposed one on each of the four sides.

The bottle is beautifully made, with perfect formal integrity and fine detailing, including as convincing a concave lip as one is likely to find, perfectly evenly scooped out to an elegant profile and with a tiny even, flat lip rim, but it is a little on the heavy side in the hand.

Although it is in danger of going almost unnoticed, one of the most intriguing features of this bottle is that the artist has positioned one entirely natural oval marking on each of the four sides of the bottle. The narrow-side panels would be inevitable when disposing the stripes vertically in this manner, since to carve a protruding curve out of such striations automatically creates oval ‘panels’, but the two on the main sides are extraordinary. These ‘panels’ may have been intended to make reference to the common snuff-bottle form with a plain bottle set with raised panels on all four sides. Whatever the referential intention, if there was one, the clever and specific placing of the four oval panels was certainly no fortuitous accident.