Snuff bottle, carved chalcedony, China, 1750-1850

People generally carried snuff in a small bottle. The bottle is a flattened flask form with a dome-shaped stopper. It is made of chalcedony, pale grey, with brown skin, with decoration carved in relief. The stopper is of carnelian set in silver. The decoration depicts a boy on a buffalo and magic fungus growing from a rock. The foot has an indentation underneath. The brown skin is used in the carved decoration.

The reverse is left plain except for carved decoration placed to take advantage of small inclusions on the shoulders. The quality of this bottle suggests that it was not made during the breakdown in China's political and social stability of the 1850s and 1860s, and the decorative theme, redolent of rustic simplicity, is firmly in Chinese taste, suggesting a date before rather than after the mid-century nadir in the decorative arts, despite the one-sidedness of the decoration.

The interesting question is whether or not manufacture of bottles like this resumed after 1870; if it did, it is quite possible that this bottle could have been made between 1870 and 1895, although it is more likely to have been made during the first half of the century. Bequeathed by Mr. George Salting, accessioned in 1910.