Coconut Snuff Bottle

[George]

Thought would share this beautiful coconut bottle from within "The Brush The Stone" book that I recently purchased.. Wonderful book by the way !

Described as well formed from two shallow halves of coconut shell and each side carved with recessed panels of circular forum containing inset tortoise shell veneers. Each panel engraved with twenty one characters per side and highlighted in gilt. The single centralized character forums a heading leaving twenty characters to form a poem of four lines to each side, the neck of formed silver splayed across the shoulders and rising to simple cylindrical mouth with two ornate collars.

Tortoise shell stopper, and 6 cm tall.

Post 1850

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Beautiful bottle George!  But one thing though .. the wood does not look like any coconut wood I have ever seen and I have lived in the tropics since 1999. I am perplexed as it doesn't have the whitish inclusions I would have expected to see.

[George]

I see what you mean Pat.. Not sure what to make of that.. It does have some pitting like expect to see within a coconut shell..

The attached pic is not this bottle.. Just an example to compare..

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear George,
    I agree with Pat; and you can't argue with his expertise - 16 years is a long time. 
Best,
  Joey

[George]

Sounds good to me !

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

I would describe this as: " a tortoiseshell, wood and silver snuff bottle with incised inscriptions on the inset tortoiseshell panels front and reverse." Somehow, even if the surrounds were coconut, 'coconut snuff bottle' doesn't do it justice. I especially like the elegant silver mount at the top of the bottle.
Best,
   Joey

[Wattana]

I would describe this as: " a tortoiseshell, wood and silver snuff bottle with incised inscriptions on the inset tortoiseshell panels front and reverse."

Dear Joey,
I get the feeling you've done this before.   
All best,
Tom

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Tom,
     Just a time or two...     
     I catalogued almost 800 of my own bottles, and 140 of the late Hilde Schonfeld's bottles, and a few hundred of other assorted friends' bottles, like Flo Weiss in Chicago, etc.  There were years during the period 1980-2000, when everywhere I went, I helped friends catalogue their collections.
     I never needed to do that with Rick in New Orleans, since he's been at it longer than me, and was a dealer in Asian Arts in the French Quarter; but almost every other collector I tended to visit (except for Bernie and the late Fran Wald, in NYC; Agatha Aronson, in Coronado, CA; and the late Pete Bozzo and his now widow Marion, in Alexandria, VA).
  Best,
    Joey

I would describe this as: " a tortoiseshell, wood and silver snuff bottle with incised inscriptions on the inset tortoiseshell panels front and reverse."

Dear Joey,
I get the feeling you've done this before.   
All best,
Tom

[rpfstoneman]

All,

I too would consider Joey's description more accurate.   However, even though it is possible, I would have a hard time believing that Chis Randell got casing material (i.e., coconut shell) wrong.     

I catalogued almost 800 of my own bottles, and 140 of the late Hilde Schonfeld's bottles, and a few hundred of other assorted friends' bottles, like Flo Weiss in Chicago, etc.

Joey, anytime your back in my area I'll be more than happy to allow you to come up with appropriate descriptions on about 200 of my better bottles, or maybe the 200 mediocre bottles I really should get rid of first. 

And Joey, sorry to hear about the lingering effects of the illness, but based on 'posting tone' it sounds like your back on your feet again which is good to hear. 

Respectfully,

Charll