Prospective purchasers are advised that several co… Read more

**A VERY RARE FOSSILIFEROUS LIMESTONE SNUFF BOTTLE WITH FOSSILIZED SHELL INCLUSION

1770-1880

Details

**A VERY RARE FOSSILIFEROUS LIMESTONE SNUFF BOTTLE WITH FOSSILIZED SHELL INCLUSION
1770-1880
Of flattened pear shape with recessed oval foot, the well-hollowed material of a deep reddish-brown tone with lighter and darker speckles, the center of one side with a pale grey spiral created by the cross-section of a mollusc shell, jadeite stopper
2½ in. (6.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Ko Collection (Tianjin, 1940)
Christie's, London, 8 November 1976, lot 171

Literature

JICSBS, Summer 1991, p. 5
Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 1, no. 82
Silver Kris, February 1995, p. 40, fig. d
The Miniature World, An Exhibition of Snuff Bottles from the J & J Collection, p. 36
The Art of Chinese Snuff Bottle, Poly Art Museum, p. 54, fig. b

Exhibited

Christie's, New York, 1993
Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994
Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1996-1997
Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1997
Naples Museum of Art, Florida, 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, 2002
National Museum of History, Taipei, 2002
International Asian Art Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, 2003
Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2003

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

This bottle represents a range of conglomerates of limestone which usually bear the fossilized remains of various prehistoric organisms. As with the present example, some of this material contains quite extraordinary fossil remains which, as decoration, are ideally suited to the intimate size and nature of the snuff bottle.

Unquestionably one of the most spectacular bottles known in this material, this bottle boasts a perfectly placed central large mollusc shell cut to reveal a cross-section of the shell which is perfectly framed by the shape of the bottle, its swirling design somewhat suggestive of a yin yang&i motif.

A similar example from the collection of Alex Cussons is illustrated in JICSBS, December 1977, p. 30, and in Snuff Bottle Review, vol. 2, 1976, p. 57.

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