New bottle to the collection!!!

[caaronc]

Hello everybody, hope everyone is well. Bought me a new bottle today to add to my collection. Figured I would post some pictures of it.  Thanks Aaron

[George]

Pretty bottle ...

I especially like the black .. Really makes the images pop !

Also appears to be a nice jade stopper from what I can see !

Pretty sure it is very new regardless of what the charactors say, but it would be nice for you to have the translation for your records..

Maybe a little bit bigger blown up pic, and one of us can help you with it..

Congrats on your new bottle !!

[caaronc]

Here is a better picture of the bottom. I do appreciate any advice. Thanks Aaron 

[KAZ]

Dear Aaron,

The pic of the characters should be upside-down. The characters can be read as "Qinglong". The 6th Qing Emperor of China of which reign was 1735 - 1795. Just for your information.
Really pretty bottle !

Cheers,
Misu

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Aaron,
    Qianlong mark, like the previous one, although not as well drawn, and similar date (modern). Pretty little example.
You might want to get some books on Chinese Snuff Bottles, and read up, and train your 'eye' on the better quality of bottles.
     I once knew a woman in Oklahoma City who collected snuff bottles, but she wasn't very friendly. Lynn Shusterman was her name. She was touring in Ireland, where I have my summer home, visited me and viewed my collection. See if there are any snuff bottles in the local Fine Arts museum.
     When I wanted to start collecting snuff bottles, my parents bought me a book, and took me to the local museum (in my case the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto) to see their collection (I was under 13 at the time). Then, I started collecting. It was 42 years ago, in mid-February, 2012.
    Are there specific types of snuff bottles you want to collect (like Blue & White Porcelain, or Jade, or Glass, or Inside Painted)?
   Best, Joey

[rpfstoneman]

Aaron,

In case you haven’t figured it out from the various postings on the forum, Joey is a world respected collector in many areas, of which snuff bottles may be his first love.  I always take heed of his advice and respect his opinion, even when he and my tastes in bottles differ.  The advice he gives is what I heard from a number of serious collectors when attended my first snuff bottle convention in 2007.  Collect what you like and as you do your education will evolve.  What I find nice about this hobby is you can build a collection in any multitude of directions (ex, I like a many contemporary bottles that I can get for $50 to $150 that many serious collectors would not take second look at).  If you are diligent, you can build a very good, if not a stellar, collection on a modest budget.  Enjoyment is the only price we need to pay for what we collect.

Charll

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hello  All,

I  don't  want to  deliberately   throw  my  spade   on this  as     to   who  is   an   "expert"  and   who is  not  so

But  I  would   simply  say  that  we  are  building  up a   considerable  body  of  expertise   on the  Forum,  and  each  of  us   has  our  own  special   areas, which  often  overlap .  Me  - I  am  ONLY  into the    very  / ultra  modern inside-painted  bottles  ( 2000 +)  ,  but  that   has  a  big  overlap  with     Bill,  Pat  and  Richy   who  were    collecting   long before  me  in the   1990's  and  Joey  ( and   very   many  S'Pore   collectors)   who were  collecting  in the   1980's   , which  is   far    - very far   -  outside  my  area  of  expertise  . 

As  for   antique   inside  bottles   (  Zhou  Leyuan   vintage  )     - forget   it.  I  know   ZILCH  but  there   are   many   collectors    who do know  a   lot,  not  least  of  which is  Ian  Hardy, very   senior  member  of the  ICSBS 

And  if    anyone  is  serious  about  collecting,  I would   say  that   to  join the   ICSBS  is a  MUST

(  Berthe / John/ Ian    : hope  you are   reading  this  ..  but  what  I  write  is  true  !  )   

When  it  comes  to  bottles  that  are  not  inside  painted, I  would  never    even  dare  post  any  opinion  - unless  to  say  "like  it"  because   I  know  zero    in that  field.    (  And  I do mean  ZERO) 

So gradually  we  build  up  mutual respect   in each others'  areas 

Well, that's  all  for  now....  it's    past 03.00  AM  HK  time

Cheers  Peter

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Thanks for the plug, Charll, but I disagree on one aspect.
     I sold most of my collection in 1991-1994, when it was considered by serious collectors, one of the top 13 after Bloch  and J&J (in other words among the top 15).
     I had 600+ bottles, and decided to focus on three categories I felt were undervalued, and that I personally really liked and preferred : Inside Painted (I had about 20); Blue & White Porcelain (15); and White Nephrite Jade(12).  I would argue that I made a stellar collection in each of the first two categories, for relatively little money.
     In the B&Ws, I paid US$100-300 a bottle for easily 90+  of the 135+ I've got today. With the IPs, I got a lot of my big name artists' bottles when they were a lot less than they are today, and then focused on lesser known, but still serious, artists. And even in the White Nephrite Jades, I have serious holdings (almost 50 bottles, the majority 18th/early 19th C.
     The trick is study and education. Educate yourself and your eye to what is good, and search everywhere, and save money for a good, and later great, bottle, rather than satisfy an immediate urge to spend cash. Deferred Gratification, it's called. I'm reading a book by a great man, Thomas Sowell. The son of Black former slaves & sharecroppers, 81 today, he is a serious economist, a student of Prof. Milton Friedman. In his book on Economics, he writes that Economics is the science of using a scarce resource that can be used in different ways, in the most efficient way.
    Money is one such scarce resource.
Best Wishes, Joey

[rpfstoneman]

Joey,

Thanks for the clarification on my comments.   I was trying to say the same thing, and you provided the examples of creating a stellar collection in both vintage bottles and quality contemporary inside painted bottles (IPBs).  My second point is, QUALITY is KING, whether it be vintage or contemporary bottles.  Strive for quality, or at least good examples of its type.  Case in point, there are Peach River Studio IPBs (post 1970 bottles) that can be purchased for less then $100US.  The quality is all over the board with these bottles from very poor to exceptional.  I like these Peach River bottles, but limit my purchasing to the the very good to exceptional range.  The same can be done with vintage bottles in many material types if you are diligent enough and spent your penny's wisely as Joey indicated.

Charll

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

AMEN TO THAT! Joey

[caaronc]

Thanks everyone for the great advice!!  Hey joey about your comment on which type of bottle I'm into. I'm still pretty open on the different types of bottles. Still trying to cut my teeth into this hobby. But if I had to decide, I would have to say that I been leaning more towards the porcelain bottles. But I find them all to be pretty cool.  I find that I have bought my bottles out of curiosity, more so than a educated decision.  Not the best way to go about things, but I like the bottles I have purchased. I am intending to do more researching as time goes on.  (Any suggestions on literature that I could acquire would be greatly appreciated.). Seems like I constantly learn something new about snuff bottles. Especially being that I  knew nothing about snuff bottles just  a month ago. But thanks in majority to the forum and the little bit of information that I have come across on my own, I am learning.  And hopefully one day I will have a collection like some of you talk about having.

Thanks again for all the great advice ....
Aaron

[Steven]

Hi Aaron,

Nice bottle, this bottle with mark" Qian Long", but  you will notice that the the mark is not written instead of being stamped on it, which happened on later Qing period and republic period, also we can find the this kind of mark on the 60-80s.

I can't certain exact the date for it, but will vote for 60-80s from the painting style.

Steven