My first amethyst bottle

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Dear George,
if I am not wrong that is not always true. I have seen 18th century bottles with flat base or just a bit shallow base.
Kind regards
Giovanni

[George]

You could well be correct... 

[David]

Dear Giovanni,

Thank you for the answers and more photos. The backlighted one looks so nice!

The body looks wonderful, and I am surprise that this is still not considered well hollowed for the material.

Warm Regards,
David

[Wattana]

Dear Giovanni,

The hollowing is very good - much better than I had appreciated from the earlier photos. But I have to agree with George that the oval rim of the base could be more precisely carved. Yes, there are many 18th century bottles with a flat base, but the elipse is usually sharp and uniform.

I would date your bottle to 1900 onwards, with the incised decoration perhaps done later.

Tom

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Giovanni,
     I was looking at this bottle more, and what follows are some of my thoughts:

     The bottle does look like a 19th C. bottle (ca.1800 - 1860), but for the neck, the base, and the crude incised decoration, which to me look like they could date from anywhere between 1920 and 2000, though my money is on post 1990 for the decoration and the badly worked imitation 'Imperial' neck.
     If we imagine the bottle with a straight cylindrical neck or a slightly tapering 'bull' neck, an indented footrim, and plain, it could easily be dated to the dates I gave above.

     It could well have been reworked, but I would reckon that the damage was between 1920 and 1980, since, between the 'Warlords' period (1920-1937), the Japanese occupation(1937-1945), the Civil War (1945-1949), or the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), there was a lot of violence and a lot of damage done to objects (never mind the damage done to people; but that is not the subject of our study here).

    Snuff was considered a type of medicine, so it was already considered a 'medicine bottle' as a snuff bottle. It was a type of medicine in powdered form, so, like other medicine bottles holding powdered medicines, as opposed to those holding pills or liquids, it had a straight neck and a 90o angle of neck to mouth; whereas other types curved outwards, in a vase- like  mouth.

    It is certainly well hollowed for a coloured mineral snuff bottle, where they would have wanted to preserve the colour which was a major part of its attraction.

    Best,
 Happy Hanuka, Merry Christmas, and a Blessings of The New Year to All,
      Joey

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Thank you dear George, David, Tom and Joey. By looking again at the foot, I now suppose that this bottle could have had a damaged foot that has been shortened. In fact the bottle stunds up very precariously, which has no sense. And the foot too is almost halfway between a regular raised foot and a concave base which should have sharper contour has correctly said by Tom.
Merry Christmas!
Giovanni

[David]

Dear Giovanni,

Even if it has been "fixed", it is still a wonderful bottle in my opinion.

I recall hearing about that during the sad times that Joey mentioned, some of the most important thing to carry with you after fire starter, food and weapons is alcohol, medicine, rope and wide strips of clothes that can stop blood from soaking through. And there is a good chance (in my opinion) that the snuff bottle you have was fixed to use to carry liquid medicine for blunt injuries. There is no need for a travel medicine bottle to stand, but there is every need for it to not catch on things or get tangled in fibers.

Each bottle have to have different shape or markings, so that you can tell what is what while you are injured and in total darkness. That might be why the neck/lip is odd or the bad inscription.

Prior to being repurposed, it must had been a very nice bottle. As it is very even in color and have a very pretty misty look. Some people like deep purple, but I will choose a light purple that is even and looks good at all angles then one that only have a few patches of deep purple.

If thought of it this way, it is a very worthwhile bottle. If you ever decide to sell it down the road, please let me know.

A very Merry Christmas to you!
David

[David]

Dear Joey,

You never cease to amaze me  ... is there a good book that breaks down the body, neck, shoulder, base of hard stone snuff bottles? I did not know there are different names for neck!

I have bits and pieces of info here and there, or photos with dating that varies from author to author or auction houses. It is so hard to decide.

To understand and learn to tell Imperial versus court versus commoner. And pre Qian Long, Qian Long- Jia Qing, post Jia Qing to 1920s. Which books can I rely on?

I hold Steven's book, your catalog and porcelain book, Stone pick Studio auction book, A hard cover HK/london auction book 1997, and Moss's Snuff Bottle of China as good sources of reference for bottle shape and dating.

Can I add the photo and dating info from The J&J collection, Col. of Mary and George Bloch by Robert Kleiner, The Meriem Collection by Christie's into this group?

If I need to buy 1 or 2 more books where price is not a consideration, which will you suggest?

Happy Hanuka, and in curiosity,
David

[deelsb26]

Hi Giovanni, Very pretty bottle!
Danna

[Fiveroosters aka clayandbrush]

Thank you dear Danna and David.
Merry Christmas!
Giovanni

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear David,
    Look at charts in the Lilla Perry book, the Bob Stevens book, I think the Hugh Moss 'Snuff Bottles of China' (1970) book. I learned my terms from those. There are other terms which are not written down, and I won't share them on a publicly accessed site. Contact me via PM, please.
Best,
Joey

Dear Joey,

You never cease to amaze me  ... is there a good book that breaks down the body, neck, shoulder, base of hard stone snuff bottles? I did not know there are different names for neck!

I have bits and pieces of info here and there, or photos with dating that varies from author to author or auction houses. It is so hard to decide.

To understand and learn to tell Imperial versus court versus commoner. And pre Qian Long, Qian Long- Jia Qing, post Jia Qing to 1920s. Which books can I rely on?

I hold Steven's book, your catalog and porcelain book, Stone pick Studio auction book, A hard cover HK/london auction book 1997, and Moss's Snuff Bottle of China as good sources of reference for bottle shape and dating.

Can I add the photo and dating info from The J&J collection, Col. of Mary and George Bloch by Robert Kleiner, The Meriem Collection by Christie's into this group?

If I need to buy 1 or 2 more books where price is not a consideration, which will you suggest?

Happy Hanuka, and in curiosity,
David

[David]

Dear Joey,

Will do, thank you.

Kindly,
David