Chinese Snuff Bottle Discussion Forum 中國鼻煙壺討論論壇

Dear all,

Sharing a recent acquisition of an amber carved in the shape of a peach since there is a greater interest in this material due to the Paris auction.

Cheers,
YT

Dear YT,
     
      That bottle is better than most of the Ambers which were sold for outrageous prices yesterday. The one I was going after (#27) went for 10,000 Euros plus 14.4%. But that was the second dearest Amber in the sale. The O'Dell Amber  (#55) went much higher, 23,000 Euros! The average price of an Amber in the sale was about 5,000 Euros, or US$5,500 +-.

      Having said that, I knew that at least 25 of the Ambers were from the Alex Cussons collection of Durban, SA. Mr. Cussons, who very graciously picked me up at my Durban hotel in his pink Bentley, while my parents and the rest of our tour group were waiting to board the bus for a city tour, had over 1,000 bottles in 1974, and I got to view all, and have a delicious lunch of chicken curry, SA style as well.

      His family were the Cussons soap people (Cussons 'Imperial Leather' soap, etc.), and he told me he had a valuable parting gift for me, hours later. I hoped for a bottle, but got some soap, instead!  :'(   :o  ::)

      But I must admit, I DID enjoy the soap, and he had some fine soaps for my mom and dad, as well.

      I will get the 'prices achieved' page from Fraysse, and post it.

      Best,
Joey

Dear YT,
what a nice bottle and superb carving! I have a similar one, which comes in the lot of bottles that I bought a few days ago from an old collection. Mine is shaped as a frog.
Kind regards
Giovanni

Dear Joey,

Thank you. For the O'Dell amber, did you see who was the under-bidder that called for €500 increase each time. It was painful!!
If you want to see this bottle again, I can arrange.
Is there a possibility to know which are the lots that is from the Cussons collection?


Dear Giovanni,

Thank you . I will be looking forward to your posting of the amber frog. Animal amber bottles usually cost much more as they tend to be associated with similar animal jade carvings.

This 7cm Amber peach belongs to the collection of A.W. Bahr, and sold by his descendent.
It was auctioned few hours after the Bloch 10 sale which by then, most of the buyers were gone. Managed to get it at an amazingly low price.
These were two of his bottles.
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/18456/lot/129/

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19305/lot/43/

Cheers,
YT

YT

Nice Amber and for sharing the examples.
man.... too much money in this world. 

Joey

Look forward to receiving the prices realized, especially the Meng Zishou portrait. 

Dear YT,
I will take the pictures. But in the meantime... it is good to know that the animal shaped ones are more valuable! ;D ;D
Giovanni

Dear Pat,

The rarest and best conditioned snuff bottles with Imperial link will only get more expensive in the future.


Dear Giovanni,

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/snuff-bottles-from-mary-george-bloch-collection-part-x-hk0576/lot.20.html
This Amber pig lot has notes that explains the link between well carved nephrite and Amber animals.
"This is one of the rare amber versions of the well-known group of white nephrite animal-form snuff bottles. The appearance of similar forms, designs, and styles in two such different substances may be an indication of imperial production.
Intriguingly, this and the other known amber animal bottles are similar insofar as they are roughly finished on the inside, although not as roughly as the gourd of Sale 9, lot 41.
Rough interiors have implications for dating. There was a mid-Qing preference for shiny interiors to snuff bottles, probably due to increasingly fastidious connoisseurship dictating that a shiny surface was superior for keeping the snuff in peak condition. This trend appears to have been one that caught on in a big way only in the first decades of the nineteenth century.
All the amber animals known, and several of the figures that can be dated to the late-Qianlong or Jiaqing periods by reference to ceramic equivalents, have rough interiors, along with the gourd of Sale 9, lot 41. This suggests that they date from the Jiaqing reign or before."

Cheers,
YT

Dear YT,

    Based on my memory: lots #
1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 15, 18, 20, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33,
34, 35, 36, 38, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, and 48.
Best,
Joey

Thank you very much Joey.
1974 till now!!

Cheers,
YT

Dear YT,
I did post the frog shaped bottle in a separate thread.
Kind regards
Giovanni

Dear Pat,

PR of lot 82, Meng Zishou, 50k is only the hammer price.

Cheers,
YT

Attached is a price realized that I have compiled. I will take no responsibility for any wrong pricing.  ;D

Thanks YT!

That's a record price for a Meng Zishou as far as I can recall. Appreciate you posting the results ..

Dear Pat,

    It is a record price for a Meng Zishou, but this is the finest MZS Portrait known, and was also in Emily Byrne Curtis' book on IPSB Portrait bottles, Reflected Glory In A Bottle, NYC 1980. It is illustrated on pp.78 & 79, while the info is on pp.18 & 19.

    And before it was in the Edward Choate O'Dell collection, this gem was owned by Dr. Louis E. Wolferz, a noted early Western collector of IPSBs.  He was also a Christian missionary of Jewish ancestry, who'd had to leave Germany in the early 1930s because he was a 'non-Aryan Christian', and therefore subject to the same racial persecution as fellow Jews who'd not converted out.
Best,
Joey
   

Posting copies of images I had posted in a different thread:

http://snuffbottle.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,2832.40.html (http://snuffbottle.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,2832.40.html)

Very odd.. I can not open either of these images.. Different problem though. When I click on them the thumbnail image disappears, but does leave the link, but I get an error message when I try to open the link.

George,

This is not a different problem - it IS the problem I have been experiencing! But not always....... mostly with Tom B's attachments.   ???

Tom L.