Tom,
Are you saying that a totally, unabashedly modern wooden bottle would fetch as much as a genuine old, albeit slightly damaged 18th or 19th C. original? Sorry, I disagree. Most collectors would pay less than US$100 for a modern wooden snuff bottle; for a genuine 18th C. wooden example, in very good condition US$5-6 K; in damaged condition, maybe US$1-2K, possibly a bit more. That is 10 to 20 times the price! Sorry, I must stick to my guns, as well. But we won't fall out over it.
And I agree with Steven - similar but different tools are used in each discipline; but, who says that you are not partially correct? Why could wood carvers not be commissioned to do examples in a cheaper wood, not in agilawood (whatever that is) or Zhitan or whatever, and that used as an example for hardstone carvers? There may well be some merit in that theory.
Of course, we are thinking like cost-effective westerners; possibly in the Palace Workshops (and the design here, IS an Imperial design), there was no need to be cost-effective. Concepts of purity surrounding the Son of Heaven, may well have held much stronger sway (think of the efforts Ultra-Orthodox Jews go to, in their need to preserve food purity, or Kashrut, even though it is definitely NOT cost-effective). In other cultures, or even in other castes in the same culture, different priorities will have stronger or lesser influence.
But, everyone, don't stop the theories coming in! They make us think harder, always a good thing. A great Rabbi I once studied with said that there are no stupid questions - just stupid answers, sometimes.
Shabbat Shalom,
Joey
