Snuff Bottles

Dear Mike & Dana,
Sorry, I thought your pair were well-hollowed. If they are just core- drilled, they were made as tourist's collector's pieces. They could still be 1950s - 1980s, because today, the craftsmen make the effort to hollow them out as if to hold snuff (access Charll's "Ivory figure bottle" (sic), for a much more modern example which is well hollowed).

After the turmoil in modern China (from after the dissolution of the Qing dynasty and empire in China in 1911, through the whole Republic of China period, with warlords controlling major parts of the country and the Japanese invasion 1937-1945, to the Civil War, 1945-1949), it was tough for people, including artisans and craftsmen.

In the early 1950s, the Communists did a wonderful thing - they rounded up all the craftsmen (there were no craftswomen then) and artisans, and, UNLIKE the Cultural Revolution 15 years later, they DIDN'T degrade and humiliate them; the government gave them living and working quarters, a stipend for their livelihoods and materials, and students to learn their crafts and arts, so that China would not lose its culture and could also earn foreign currency, much needed then (and now).
In the early period, they focused on externals (hence, the outside is relatively well finished, although not to the 18th C. level, or even the 19th C. level, but the bottle is core-drilled, so it patently could not hold snuff, the reason for it to be made in the first place, ostensibly).

I'm sorry to give you a rollercoaster of opinions, but I find it hard to judge without the bottle in my hand. I'm not used to making decisions via the internet, whether to buy a bottle or not, or to give an opinion, and it's hard without being able to access all the info at once and to have physical input. That is the chief limitation on looking at bottles through this medium.

At the conventions, we used to bring examples (we don't do that as much, due to security and other restraints in travel) and share opinions. Now we do it over dealers' bottles. It helps whoever buys the bottle, but helps all of us hone our senses and abilities. Charll and I spent an enjoyable hour or two in Palm Beach, at the last convention, strolling around the Dealers' room, looking at assorted snuff bottles, in assorted booths, discussing them and their pluses and minuses.
Best, Joey