Dear Adrian,
Actually, your statement that there is only one opening, is the best proof that it IS a snuff bottle. Or a small bottle of some sort, and since it is Chinese, and suitable to a scholar's table and studio, why NOT a snuff bottle?
A water dropper needs two openings: with only one it is very hard to get water into or out of, the vessel.
When one fills a water dropper, the air needs a way to exit as the water enters. And then, if one keeps a fingertip firmly covering and blocking one opening, the water will not exit the other opening.
To add water to the inkstone, one opens the other hole, and the water can exit through the spout (there is usually a spout on a water dropper).
I'm convinced it is a snuff bottle, but confused about its age.
Did you or someone else copy the 6 character mark on paper, or is that a photo of the mark?
It is unclear to me.
And have you seen it 'live', or only through the photos you've shared with us?
One thing I'd advise (though if you are trying to buy it for a lot less than the US$400 asking price, you've no need of advice from me!
), take with a grain of salt, the claim by the vendor that his father bought it decades ago; UNLESS he has sent you documentary proof it was purchased that long ago.
The two periods I'd reckon it could reasonably come from, are ca.1890-1930 or ca.1990-2015. Although the really crudely drawn mark (assuming the mark you posted IS from the actual piece) is very odd for either period. Especially since the actual object looks quite well made and decorated.
You say the stopper has been made to fit using a few pieces of very clean tape. What is the tape on? Is there a porcelain piece, like a cork but smaller in circumference to the opening, which has had the tape wrapped around it?
Sorry to go on and on, but this bottle has me focused, because of its contradictions (looks well potted and decorated, but truly awful mark; is really odd, but is also very appealing; has me totally confused as to its date of manufacture.), and because I am a sucker for B & W, as well as truly one of a kind pieces.
I have said many times, live and on the Forum, that because of Chinese culture's very strict regimentation, due to the large population that had to be kept alive, individuality had to be kept down quite severely; and so, almost never do the phrases, 'one of a kind' or, "I've never seen another like it!", augur well.
BUT, please notice the caveat, 'almost never'.
If the Weiqi Table snuff bottle is Guangxu/early Republic, than everything the vendor said, might well be true.
I wish you success. If he doesn't go down in price, and you decide not to go for it, I'd appreciate a heads-up.
Best Wishes,
Joey
Best
Dear Joey,
I have to report back that the stopper has no cork or spoon which is disappointing, and the stopper has been made to fit with a few wraps of very clean looking tape. The Sellers description of it as a snuff bottle came via the son of the collector who obtained it some decades ago.
As the table is hollow it would need a route for water vapour to escape from when it was fired. As the hole for the stopper is the only hole in the body then was it decided by whoever made it that they would incorporate the hole in the overall design and fill it with something that may resemble a handle for a drawer in the table in which the stones for the game may be kept ?
There was nothing to stop the maker putting a hole in the underside of the table and adding something resembling a handle to the front of the table into the mould so logic suggests the fact the handle was made to be removed had some function. Your suggestion of it possibly being a water dropper may be more fitting than an assumption that has clearly been held that it was a snuff bottle or something intended to mimic one.
Regards,
Adrian.