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Lot Essay
The combination of a gourd and a bat expresses a wish for ample progeny and happiness.
This bottle, with its superbly controlled carving, certainly ranks among the finest of all naturalistically carved coral bottles. A coral bottle of this subject with similar carving and with a tentative Imperial attribution is illustrated by H. Moss, V. Graham, K.B. Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, vol. 3, Stones Other Than Jade and Quartz, p. 181-183, no. 433. The authors note that coral was a favorite material of the court, and was a standard gift to the Emperor on the occasion of his birthday.
For a similar coral double-gourd bottle, probably by the same hand in the Denis Low Collection, see R. Kleiner, Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, Singapore, 1999, no. 227.
This bottle, with its superbly controlled carving, certainly ranks among the finest of all naturalistically carved coral bottles. A coral bottle of this subject with similar carving and with a tentative Imperial attribution is illustrated by H. Moss, V. Graham, K.B. Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, vol. 3, Stones Other Than Jade and Quartz, p. 181-183, no. 433. The authors note that coral was a favorite material of the court, and was a standard gift to the Emperor on the occasion of his birthday.
For a similar coral double-gourd bottle, probably by the same hand in the Denis Low Collection, see R. Kleiner, Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, Singapore, 1999, no. 227.