This outstanding bottle represents the earlier phase of overlaying in snuff bottles. The characteristics of this group include impeccable formal integrity, vibrant colour and superbly confident design and carving. The relief is unusually well rounded and conveys a strong sense of three-dimensionality. They have excellent plastic control of the design, careful undercutting and a smooth even finish. This bottle is one of the most impressive, with its sumptuous, gem-like colour and superb composition and carving.

The endless knot is one of the Eight Buddhist Treasures and symbolises longevity. Peaches and lingzhi are symbols of immortality, while the bat adds a wish for happiness during the long life wished upon the owner of the bottle.

For a closely related bottle from this group with the same combination of sapphire-blue overlay ona slightly milky ground and in the Bloch Collection, see A Treasury of Snuff Bottles, Vol. 5, no. 921.