Description
Description: Chinese snuff bottle of thin elegant form, finely carved with 12 lobes. The material is pure quartz with a pale yellow/brownish tinge, which indicate that it is most probably of the rare variety called citrine. The superb carving of this bottle, the presence of 12 lobes instead of the more classical 8 lobes, the deeply recessed round base, the wide mouth, are all pointing toward an early date and to the attribution to the Palace Workshop, thus probably imperial. This is also the opinion of all the experts that has seen the bottle.
Foot/base: Small round deeply recessed flat base. The detail of the base is shown in the last picture of the group.
Mark:
Dating: 18th century, Beijing Palace Workshop, almost surely Imperial.
Material: Quartz
Size: 62 mm high
Stopper: Pink glass stopper and green glass collar with ivory spoon.
Provenance: See Provenance of the glass bottle G35
References: The last picture is resuming the Bonhams sale of a quartz citrine bottle, similarly attributed, from the Bloch and previously the J. B. Silver collection.
Notes: The comments of the reference bottle are interesting and very well fitting with our bottle, either those related to the material and those related to the attribution. What is worth to add is that the skills required for carving a so tiny 12 lobed bottle with such exceptional hollowing (pls. note the tiny thickness at the mouth), are much superior than what is required for carving a faceted bottle. Thus, the Imperial attribution is almost certain.
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