A BANDED AGATE SNUFF BOTTLE
1750-1850
The pale, transparent stone is encircled at the center by parallel white bands and the neck has been carved to suggest the folds of a cinched purse. The base is incised with a two-character mark, zhen wan (precious plaything).
2 1⁄4 in. (5.7 cm.) high, pink tourmaline stopper
Provenance
Bob C. Stevens Collection, no. 533. Fine and Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Bob C. Stevens, Part I; Sotheby’s Honolulu, 7 November 1981, lot 81. Rachelle R. Holden Collection, New York.
Literature
B. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, no. 533. R. Holden, Rivers and Mountains Far From the World - The Rachelle R. Holden Collection, A Personal Commentary, New York, 1994, p. 381, no. 178.
Exhibited
Tokyo, Mikimoto Hall, An Exhibition of Chinese Snuff Bottles From The Bob C. Stevens Collection, 22-31 October 1978, cat. no. 115.
For another agate bottle carved in a purse form, see The Joe Grimberg Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Sotheby’s New York, 14 September 2010, lot 44.
More from
Rivers and Mountains Far from the World: Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Rachelle R. Holden Collection