2 realgar snuff bottles

[Rube]

Steven,

I agree, let's keep it "real"!  Amazing!

Thanks for sharing this swirling beauty!

Cheers,

Rube.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Steven,

     Another beautiful Realgar glass example.
Congratulations.
Best,
Joey

[Wattana]

Very attractive! Thanks for sharing Steven.

But you don't give the height.....

Tom

[AntPeople]

Simple and nice bottle.... 👍🏼

Pin

[Jungle Jas]

Good morning one and all,

This morning I am like a child in a sweet shop, I managed to pick up a glass imitating Realgar bottle from eBay after looking for many years.  It is "unusual" to quote Adrian. I suspect Steven would call it imitating Jasper, indeed it does look similar to the Jasper pebbles he posted on  page two of this topic, however it could equally be Realgar as in the pink and purple parts of the pictures he posted of Realgar. Pictures 3 and 5 on the same page. The bottle 60mm high (no stopper, missing) 53 mm wide and 35mm deep. it is of rounded square form with a small oval raised foot. It appears to have some age as it has usage marks on the surface. It differs from the usual Realgar bottle as follows. It is the conventional swirl bottle with the colours being purple pink and orange. These are the colours you can see as it has not been dipped in yellow and red casing as normal. The seller described it as follows. "Chinese hand carved heavily marbled red hard stone Snuff bottle."!!!!!! I will post pictures as soon as I get it. As I would value your opinion.

Kind regards Jason.

[forestman]

Hi Jason,

Look forward to seeing it now you've teased us 

Regards, Adrian.

[Jungle Jas]

Hi All
Please find attached one photo, more to follow, as promised. I am afraid the quality is very poor, hopefully clear enough to make some comments on the bottle.
Kind regards
Jason

[Jungle Jas]

And another.

[Jungle Jas]

And another.

[Jungle Jas]

Last one. There is a lot of wear all over the bottle but particularly on the foot which is why there is a bloom in the centre of the foot. At first glance the foot appears recessed in the centre but is infract flat with just a ring ground out around the inside edge of the foot.

Regards Jason.   

[George]

I would agree with Steven believing it imitating jasper rather than realgar .

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Jason,

    Definitely imitating Jasper, in my opinion.
And a nice 19th C. example [ca.1820-1880].
If you'd like a stopper, cork and spoon,
let me know ASAP, the diameter of the neck and the same of the
mouth, and if you have any preference as to stopper colour [though it looks large, so I won't have a huge choice], and I'll bring the stuff with me to London on 10.Dec. and ask Susan to post to you from there.
Best,
Joey

[rpfstoneman]

Jason,

Definitely glass imitating jasper.  Attached is an example I recently picked up from the Ted Adameck estate auction in Los Angeles this last month at I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers.   I'll defer to Joey's assessment on age.

Charll

[Rube]

Jason and Charll,

Thanks for posting these beautiful bottles!
Except for the base, very similar.

Cheers,

Rube.

[Luke]

Congratulations Jason! Very nice bottle as is Charlls also.

Always a lot of interest in these realgar/jasper glass bottles at the auctions. I've have been searching for a nice example too, but no luck yet.

Best,
Luke

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Charll,

    I'd give yours the same dating.
Best,
Shabbat Shalom,
Joey

[Jungle Jas]

Good evening to you all,

Thank you for taking the time to reply and the information supplied.

George, I thought you would call it Jasper despite what I said about Stevens pictures of Realgar. I would like to know what the person who made it thought he was making, of course we shall never know.

Rube, Charll's bottle does indeed look recessed but that could be a trick of the light. I hope Charll will tell us.

Luke, with regards to cost I'm not sure what a bottle like this normally costs as I have never seen one sold before and I can't find one in any of my catalogues, all I can say I got this for a song. As for the normal Realgar bottles the last one I saw sold on eBay was close on £700. Looking at my old auction catalogues they seem to be even more.

Charll, Your bottle looks beautiful and has much less wear then mine. How was yours described in the catalogue.

Last but certainly not least, Joey. Thank you for dating the bottle I was hoping it was around the age you mentioned but that was just from the wear on the bottle it was obversely well used and loved. I would love to take you up on your offer of a stopper if you have anything suitable. the neck size is 22mm and the hole is 8mm. as for colour I will let you choose is I know you have impeccable taste. As for your trip to London I would love to attend however my wife is going into hospital next week for an operation and it will depend upon her recovery!!!!!! I will let you know as soon as I see how well she is recovering.

Regards to one and all. Jason.

[rpfstoneman]

Jason,

My glass imitating jasper came as a group of 3 bottles.  The description was rather limited, "swirled earthy red of rounded squared form, imitating agate, with ruby matrix stopper".  From the pictures you provided, it seems that my bottle is almost an exact match to your bottle. Without the stopper it is 2 5/16th (6.0 cm) in height.  The foot is flat with the edges cut down just a bit so as to taper down to create an oval foot ring.  Like yours it has a top of 22mm in diameter with a 8mm hole.  The actual color under natural lighting is a more like your bottle.  If your bottle matches these dimensions, I would suspect they are from the same workshop/studio.

Charll

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Jason,

    I opened my box of stoppers, and went for the largest I could find. 22 mm!
Silver coloured metal collar, with a light green stone stopper. It should work well.
Then I found you a metal and a bamboo spoon.
The cork is proving harder. I have every x.0 mm & x.5 mm size cork from 4.0 to 7.5, and from 8.5 to 9.5, but not 8 mm!
I will check the unbagged ones [the aforementioned are from Jill Guo, and each bag is labelled as to diameter.
I have funnel-shaped corks, where the small end is 8 mm. I will probably just file it down to a tube-shape, put a whole in the middle, file the whole larger, and that will be it.

Incidentally, my Realgar Glass flask, 18th C. Palace Workshops, which I kept when I sold almost all my general examples through Clare, in the early 1990s,  cost me US$225 in 1981 during the first ICSBS Honolulu convention.
It was from a wonderful lady, Gene [Eugenia] Sawyer, who'd been a journalist embedded with Gen. Stillwell's US forces in China during WWII.
The going rate was US$250, but she insisted on giving me a 10% discount.

She'd wanted to give me the bottle, for helping her sell the other 10 or so  she had, but I'd refused, since it was the most valuable of the group. The others, I'd helped her sell to other little old ladies at the convention for US$40-50 each. They were the type that little old ladies would buy at Eldred's each Aug. at the snuff bottle sale.

   I agreed to the discount on condition that she join Allie McReynolds and myself for dinner in the steakhouse at the Hawaiian Regent Hotel [now the Marriott Beach Resort at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki, and the venue for the 3rd ICSBS Honolulu convention]. 

   At the 2018 ICSBS convention, in Baltimore, I bought another Realgar glass, again 18th C. & Palace Workshops; for US$2,500, I believe.
It is posted as #235 in: http://triple.co.il/jbs 

Shabbat Shalom,
Joey

[Jungle Jas]

Good evening  Joey, Charll.

I apologise for the delay in replying to you both,  my computer went down and when you live in the middle of nowwere it takes longer than normal to get things sorted.

Joey, I have already sent you a message which I hope you have received?

Charll, thank you for the information supplied, I would also suspect they came from the same workshop. We have a saying in the UK you hang around for hours waiting for a bus then three come along at the same time!!!!!! It seems the same with these imitation jasper bottles. I looked on eBay late last night only to find another in the USA with the name of the seller LACHAMBREDAMBRE! When I saw it last night it was described almost identical as the one you bought Charll but with a green stopper. It is being sold as a "Chinese carved Peking glass snuff bottle Quing period". However today he changed the description to "Simulated Realgar Peking glass oblong shaped bottle with fluted neck, finished with polished green agate stopper". He obversely believes Realgar  bottles are more expensive.   The only down side with this is the price, with the cost of postage it is 13 time more expensive than the one I obtained. however I don't know if his is expensive, I suspect mine was inexpensive and his has the advantage of a stopper but no spoon.

Kind regards Jason.

EDIT. 

Having just looked at the rest of his site, I have now noticed he has a mirror backed display cabinet identical to one on I bought on eBay about 3weeks ago for £62-00 his is $459-99! are things in the USA really that much more expensive? If so I'm glad I live in the UK.