Page 120 - Carl Barron Snuff Bottle Collection, CHRISTIE's Spet 12 2018

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A CARVED CAMEO AGATE SNUFF BOTTLE
OFFICIAL SCHOOL, 1760-1820
The bottle is carved on one side with four horses in diferent positions, utilizing the opaque
white skin of the pale grey stone. The undecorated reverse has some small russet fecks.
2º in. (5.7 cm) high, blue stone stopper
$12,000-15,000
PROVENANCE
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong, 2000.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 3034.
For a discussion of the Oficial School of hard-stone carving, see Moss, Graham, Tsang,
A Treasury of Chinese Snuf Bottles. The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 2, Part 1,
Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 206-207, no. 258, as well as Part 2, pp. 326-345, nos. 301-307
for examples from the school carved with horses.
The horse is seen as a powerful animal and may be representational of a wish for peace.
The ancient Chinese saw the horse as a representation of peace, as the person riding the
horse would bring peaceful tidings, as discussed by Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden
Meanings in Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 240. Horses also symbolize men of talent
because the character jun (steed) is a homonym for the word meaning “a talented man.”
The motif conveys the wish, “May you be one of the talented people.”
1760-1820年 瑪瑙巧雕四駒圖鼻煙壺

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