Lot Essay
This bottle belongs to a small group of similar bottles characterized by striking combinations of colors and delightful and fluent designs. Dating to the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century this group may be connected in some manner with the Yangzhou school. They are usually of flattened spherical form and frequently decorated with a design of the metamorphosis of the silkworm. A bottle with similar decoration to the current bottle was sold in Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J&J Collection, Part II, Christie's New York, 29 March 2006, lot 54, on which gourds of similar size are set on top of large green leaves on a pink glass ground.