Lot 538
538
TWO JAPANESE IVORY BOTTLES

Details
TWO JAPANESE IVORY BOTTLES
19TH CENTURY

The larger of waisted, flattened, baluster shape and reserve painted with ladies in garden settings; the smaller of tapering, flattened shape reserve painted with birds amidst flowers, stoppers (2)

Lot Essay

For a bottle of similar type see Chris Randall, Important Chinese Snuff Bottles, Catalogue, 1992, no. 27, where the author notes that the origins of this style of work can be traced to the Tang period. There are preserved in the Shososin, Japan, four measuring rods decorated in this technique, called bashiou