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Lot 81
Lot 81
Treasury 7, no. 1545
Ivory Purity
Ivory; very well hollowed, with a flat lip and recessed flat foot
1740–1830
Height: 6.06 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.80/2.01 cm
Stopper: jadeite and green pigment; gilt-bronze collar
Lot 81 Provenance:
Robert Hall (1987)
Published:
Hall 1987, no. 2
Treasury 7, no. 1545
Lot 81 Commentary
Ivory snuff bottles are relatively rare products. Ivory was the favourite material for snuff dishes—a disproportionate number survive compared to all other types added together—but it is possible that ivory was not considered an ideal material for storing snuff. (Zhou Jixu so ruled in the late nineteenth century—see Lynn 1995, p. 10—although he found ivory to be perfect for snuff dishes.) These plain, functional ivory bottles become very beautiful as they are patinated over time, with no two alike in their colouring and markings. Apart from being among the most supremely elegant of the entire group of such bottles, this one has survived in the finest condition in terms of the material itself. Old ivory patinates to a lovely creamy yellow or orange-brown colour, becoming smoothed by the hand as it does. The price one occasionally pays for this lovely patination, however, is unsightly discolouration and some age cracking, which is often extensive. We have come to accept such changes as a natural and delightful side effect of age upon this tactile material, but it is nice once in a blue moon to find a piece of ivory that has acquired the lovely patina of age without cracking up noticeably. One side here is completely free of cracks, allowing us to focus on the lovely grain and texture of the material as it would have appeared on the day it was first used, though the colour would have been paler then.
For another plain ivory bottle of similar form, although patinated to a deeper colour, see Low 2002, no. 254; another well-patinated example is in Kleiner 1990, no. 105, and a third is in Hall 1993a, no. 5.