Page 84 - Carl Barron Snuff Bottle Collection, CHRISTIE's Spet 12 2018

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A CARVED AGATE SNUFF BOTTLE
1760-1840
The honey-colored bottle is carved on one side in the speckled green stone with a katydid
standing on the green leaves of a turnip, and is carved with the same technique on one narrow
side with another turnip and a single butterfy with green-speckled wings on the reverse.
2 in. (5 cm.) high, glass stopper
$6,000-8,000
PROVENANCE
Asiantiques, Winter Park, Florida, 1998.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 2626.
EXHIBITED
Boston, International Chinese Snuf Bottle Society Convention,
The Barron Collection, 23-26 September 2008.
An emblem of courage, the katydid in Chinese is pronounced guoguo, which sounds the
same as the word ‘country’. The rebus is interpreted as jinzhong baoguo, meaning ‘to
be loyal to one’s country’. Large quantities of imperially made bottles were presented
to oficials around the country as a sign of imperial recognition. Such a pun would have
been a subtle and efective way of reminding oficials of an essential feature of Confucian
government. Another reason for the popularity of the katydid imagery is linked to the
production of cricket and katydid cages and the popular pastime of katydid fghts.
1760-1840年 瑪瑙巧雕蝴蝶蟈蟈圖鼻煙壺

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