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Lot Essay
Keeping crickets and staging cricket fights were popular autumn pastimes for men and boys in China. The custom is said to have been first popular in the Tang dynasty. In this charming and nostalgic scene, boys bring their clay cricket pots together for a match, holding their insects back with thin bamboo sticks until the signal to release them.
The bottle once resided in the collection of Baroness Figlia d'Essen which mostly consisted of fine Chinese snuff bottles, and was formed in the late nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth century and then passed down to her daughter, Baroness Jacobea Sapuppo. The latter was the wife of the former Italian Ambassador to Bulgaria and Peru. A number of pieces of Chinese glass from the collection were sold at Christie's Milan, 11 May 2000 while the collection of snuff bottles was sold at Sotheby's London, 14 November 2000.
The bottle once resided in the collection of Baroness Figlia d'Essen which mostly consisted of fine Chinese snuff bottles, and was formed in the late nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth century and then passed down to her daughter, Baroness Jacobea Sapuppo. The latter was the wife of the former Italian Ambassador to Bulgaria and Peru. A number of pieces of Chinese glass from the collection were sold at Christie's Milan, 11 May 2000 while the collection of snuff bottles was sold at Sotheby's London, 14 November 2000.