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

This lovely coral bottle unfortunately has a few dings in it.
Am wondering how much that hurts the value

Oh, and I meant to ask about coral. It seems like the coral bottles in the really good collections are all very carefully carved and shaped into bottle shapes. There seems to be a lot of dyed red coral left in it's natural state (meaning looking like a coral branch) and I'm wondering if that is all newer carvings or if there were older ones done that way.

thanks!

Your bottle has a lovely and even hue. Because there are small natural chips and fissures in natural coral, it is quite normal to fill them with colour matched wax. So those small flaws do not in themselves affect the value too much.

But the bottle is quite modern, by which I mean it was probably made sometime within the last 20-25 years (i.e. post-1990).

The natural branch forms you mention are mostly modern, although there are a few older ones around.

Dear Tom,
   
 Look at how shiny it is. I thought it might be glass in imitation of coral.
And in that case could be quite a bit older.
Your thoughts?
Best,
Joey

I think you are right - the chips in it very much look like chips in glass. I don't have any real coral to compare it to. So perhaps I have two imitation glass bottles - the pebble and the coral.

Cathy,

I too suspect this bottle is glass imitating coral.  Here is a link to another example:

http://www.trocadero.com/stores/2ezr/items/698571/item698571.html

Charll

Good comparison Charll. The dinks on Cathy's bottle make sense now as characteristic pitting (burst bubbles) in glass. But I'd question the 1940 dating on the Trocadero example.

Dear Joey,

Yes, the vitreous shine should have given me the hint it was glass, and not coral. As for dating, I do not think it is an old bottle, because of the foot rim. It is an almost perfect geometric ellipse. You don't generally find that egg-shaped profile on older bottles, the bases of which tend to be more elongated.

Tom

Very good example! You guys are such great sleuths! But to be catty - the color of mine is much nicer!  ::)

Dear Tom,

     The shape of the base tends to depend on the shape of the bottle. I would tend to date this bottle to mid-late 19th C., and possibly earlier. You could be correct re.it's being modern, though. I just don't agree, till I hold it.  ;D
Best,
Shabbat Shalom,
Joey

Dear Joey,

You are quite correct, of course. But in my experience, even when the bottle is quite bulbous in shape, the profile of the foot rim tends to look more like a "square egg", as opposed to a true ellipse. That is not to say there are no exceptions. It's just that the vast majority of these geometrically perfect ellipses are to be found on modern machine finished bottles.

But, like you, I cannot say for sure without holding it.   :)

Best,
Tom

Dear Tom,

    You have one up on me - I don't know what an ellipse is. ::)
I will Google it. What did we do without Google?
Joey