清十八 / 十九世紀 瑪瑙天然紋鼻煙壺

Chinese Porcelain Company，紐約，1992年
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.，1993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261

The mouth is slightly polished where there were minor chips, but otherwise 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."

Based on similarly shaped snuff bottles with credible reign marks, one can be certain that this form was associated with the palace workshops of the Qianlong era and perhaps earlier and later periods, as well. The shape is defined by a heavily compressed, sometimes almost flattened pear shape, which sits either on a flat or recessed oval foot and has its formal weight concentrated in the lower part of the body.

Wherever this example was made (we cannot exclude non-palace workshops), it is a spectacular example of the qualities of agate imaginatively incorporated in a superbly controlled and very well hollowed form. The design is entirely natural in the material and has simply been disposed appropriately by cutting the material to place the subject on one main side of the bottle. We see a taotie mask there, but that is not the only possible interpretation.

At first glance, the shortness of the neck in comparison with the standard version of this form might suggest that a chip has been removed by reducing its height. A common way to deal with chips in the outer neck or lip is to reduce either the diameter or the height of the neck, but this can be extremely difficult to detect. With snuff bottles, where the number of possible variations on a given shape is theoretically limitless, it is often difficult to judge whether or not a bottle has been adjusted formally. Just because some examples of a particular form have a neck of a certain height does not necessarily mean that this is an inviolate standard.

In fact, evidence that there has not been any re-carving of the neck here is offered by the neatly carved concave lip. As a rule, if a chip has to be removed by reducing the height of the neck, it is far easier to do so leaving a flat lip, even if the original was concave. Until very recently, when concave lips have been noticed and valued, it would hardly have occurred to a restorer to go to the extra trouble of reforming the concavity of the lip. Moreover, if the repair were done recently, there would be no signs of wear on the lip itself, whereas here there are. The lip is covered with convincing wear consisting of random scratches, particularly on the tiny rim, which actually makes contact with the stopper. All of these tell-tale signs would have been removed had it been re-carved in recent years.