A SMALL SUZHOU CHALCEDONY AGATE BOTTLE

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Details

A SMALL SUZHOU CHALCEDONY AGATE BOTTLE
18TH CENTURY

Of rounded shape, carved in a continous scene and cleverly using the dark inclusions with a scholar to each side, one standing below the moon, a plume of smoke issuing from his hands, the other with his attendant looking at a chrysanthemum growing from rockwork, all amidst serrated rockwork and a cloud collar, the neck carved with pine, the flat foot carved with a continuation of the rockwork, small chip to plume of smoke

Lot Essay

For a bottle of similar shape with a figure leading a deer to one side see Robert W.L. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, p.105, pl.147. As the author states in the footnote to the above 'the full range and quality (of the Suzhou School) is, perhaps, best demonstrated by the examples in Chalcedony, in which the greater varieties of tone and inclusion in the material itself often gave further scope to the craftsmen involved in the manufacture to demonstrate their virtuosity'. It is certainly the case in this bottle, especially the neck inclusions which have been used to wonderful effect in the lower branches of a pine tree, and again in the vapor rising before the immortal. For another with sages see Robert W.L. Kleiner, ibid., pp.106-107, pl.149-150 and another with rockwork see Hugh M. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, pp.68-69, pl.12