1780-1850

This type of bright red and white carnelian agate, also known as sardonyx, can be found on a small number of skillfully carved snuff bottles. See, Moss, Graham Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 258, no. 162, for a goldfish-form bottle, where the authors note, "This distinctive type of rich coral-red and white carnelian seems to have been hardly used before the Qing dynasty - although carnelian beads of a distinctly different appearance are known from archaic sites. Several other objects are known, most of small size (although not all as small as a snuff bottle), which could reasonably be dated to the mid-Qing period, but as a rule the nineteenth century seems a more likely period to which to attribute them. The material may have been imported from abroad. It is an extremely effective stone with its bright contrasts...As a rule the distinctly separate colours are used to perform fairly obvious design functions.”

A related bottle of this material of pebble form carved with chilong from the Rachel Holden Collection was sold at Christie’s New York, 21 March 2000, lot 168.