An embellished agate 'Double-Gourd' snuff bottle; The Bottle: Probably Palace Workshops, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong-Jiaqing period ; the embellishment: Tsuda Family, Kyoto, 1890-1941. Photo Sotheby's

translucent, variegated reddish-brown and beige-brown chalcedony embellished with soapstone, turquoise, red glass, gold, orange, cinnabar red, and black lacquer, the double-gourd shaped bottle with a flared inner neck and protruding flat foot, carved with eight bulging faceted panels and embellished with a continuous design of four young boys climbing on two severed branches of formalized scrolling, flowering vines, with four butterflies in flight; with a glass stopper; 6.2 cm., 2½ in. Estimation 120,000 — 150,00. Lot. Vendu 225,000 HKD 

PROVENANCE Christie’s New York, 27th November 1991, lot 149

EXPOSITION  Chinese Snuff Bottles: A Miniature Art from the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 240. 
National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, 1994-1995.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, The British Museum, London, 1995, cat. no. 240.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.

LITTERATURE Michael C. Hughes, 'Saleroom News: Christie's New York, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art in November 1991', Arts of Asia, March-April 1992, p. 138.

Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 7, Hong Kong, 2009, no. 1704.

NOTE The original Chinese bottle here has all the features of a Palace product of the Qianlong period, although there is no mark to exclude a slightly earlier or later date. The material, the double gourd shape, the facetting, and the flat outer neck rim are all typical, although the continuous flare to the inside of the neck is not. That probably represents a Japanese repair to a chipped mouth. The polish on the inside of the neck is different from that of the bottle and clearly reflects a later adjustment. 

Sotheby's. Snuff Bottles from the Mary and George Bloch Collection: Part VI. Hong Kong | 27 mai 2013 - www.sothebys.com