Message #39844

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Kevin,

      Think about China in the period after the Opium wars and the development of steamship traffic from Europe to the Far East. All of a sudden, there were a lot of wealthy Westerners, buying souvenirs, the more Exotic and 'Oriental' the better.
I am not necessarily saying this object was for export per se. I do think that it's intended buyer was either a well-heeled visitor from
the West, or one of the minority peoples, such as a Tibetan, a Mongol, or a Manchu not connected to the Court (Those connected to the Court were very Sinicised and slavishly followed Han Literati dictates).

     I have looked again at the piece, and you may well be correct that the spoon part was made at the same time as the bottle. And it reminded me of something: I saw a superb collection of Thai snuff bottles in Bangkok in 1999, the collection of the late John Ault. He'd received most of them from his wife's family, who are members of the extended Thai Royal Family. I remember seeing snuff bottles with similar exterior connected spoons among John's collection.

     The decorative style is obviously of the type that we characterize as 'Mongolian'. That does not mean it can't have been made for the Thai market, although the logical inference is that it was made for the Mongol, Manchurian or Tibetan markets, or to sell to a rich Western collector, either in or outside, of China.

      I must say that while it is not my personal taste, I can easily see why it intrigued you enough to buy it.
Best wishes,
Joey