Snuff Bottle Pages

26/09/2026

Happy Mid Autumn Festival - sometimes known as the Moon Festival, celebrated this weekend. It’s a time when families gather together to celebrate the harvest and their blessings and it often occurs during the period of a full moon. On this day, the Chinese believe that the moon is at its fullest and brightest, coinciding with the time of harvest in the middle of autumn. It’s hard to find s***f bottles of this theme but here is a 19th century example:
Porcelain, painted in underglaze-blue with copper-red highlights with two scholars in a mountain landscape with tall cliffs and trees the background with the sun or the moon.
I think it’s the moon - do you agree ?
ICSBS

01/09/2026

Do you think this is an improvement? Jazzing up an old bottle with semi precious stones…. Nephrite, of elegant pear form encased in a gilt metal casing with semi precious stones the bottle 1780-1850 the casing 1960’s ***fbottlesociety ***fbottle

15/08/2026

Copper and gold s***f bottle in the form of an eggplant; the calyx and one leaf in oxidised copper with gilt detail to make it look realistic; an almond shaped foot and the inner neck with a clockwise screw thread.

Probably Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, 1720-1800
Provenance : Hanhai, Beijing 3 July 2000 lot 1592
Robert Kleiner 
Mary and George Bloch 
Published: Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese S***f Bottles The Mary and George Bloch Collection,  Vol 7 Part 2 The Heriot Collection: Volume I, 2020, fig 70 ***fbottlesociety ***fbottle

04/08/2026

Jade, black nephrite, finely carved rectangular form on a raised footrim with masked ring handles on the shoulders, black in colour with natural white streaks.

Provenance: The Heriot Collection: Pat Miller collection
Published: The Heriot Collection: Volume I, 2020, fig 45 Height:5.1cm ***fbottlesociety ***fbottle

27/07/2026

Nephrite s***f bottle, carved overall with a basketweave pattern. Probably imperial, attributed to the Beijing Palace Workshops, 1770-1850. Height 5.5cm Provenance: White Wings Collection no 25 ***fbottlesociety ***fbottle ***fbottles

11/07/2026

Glass; the ovoid body resting on a flat base, suffused with deep crimson and maroon-coloured splashes between two clear layers.
1760-1800
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This bottle represents the classic group made by dripping coloured oxides onto a clear body during the manufacturing process and then sealing the colour beneath a transparent outer layer of glass. The possibilities for variations in the patterns created are endless and no two of this type of bottle are ever alike. The pattern on this bottle is particularly
effective, as it appears to surge in a wind-blown sweep towards the neck.

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4.8cm

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Provenance:
Bob C. Stevens
Sotheby’s New York, June 1982, lot 1
Eric Young
Societe Jersiaise
Sotheby’s London, 13 October 1987, lot 22
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30/06/2026

Love is in the air on this s***f bottle. Blue and white bottle with the Tale of the Cowherd and the Spinning Maid.
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21/06/2026

18/06/2026

Telling a story- a lovely rebus on a bottle. Would you like to see more reels ?
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18/06/2026

An interesting rebus on a blue and red underglaze s***f bottle…. ***fbottle ***fbottlesociety