Bottle ID: 636

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CARVED CRICKET CAGE WITH IVORY STOPPER

Date: 1820 - 1850

Height: 47 mm

Bamboo, small, of dark golden-brown color, carved in the form of a woven wicker-work cricket cage, the mouth with a well patinated ivory collar, together with the original matching stopper in tortoiseshell carved with an ivory flower-head, imitating the lid of the cricket cage.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 280.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 1, pp. 276-277, no. 112.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 5, Part 3, pp. 812-813, no. 1061.
Zhongguo binyanhu zhenshang [Gems of Chinese Snuff Bottles]. Edited by Geng Baochang and Zhao Binghua, 1992, no. 11.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
The Collection of M. Lenhart, San Francisco, CA
Dragon House, San Francisco, CA
The Collection of Susie Just, Shanghai, China (1920's)

This unique example of a bamboo bottle carved in the form of a miniature woven wicker cricket cage resembling what should be a natural gourd cricket cage clearly presents us with a conundrum! The similar examples given are either in amber-brown colored glass with a wide date range (1730-1850) or yellow jade with an imperial attribution and a Qianlong period date. Cricket cages of this form became popular in the mid Qing, from the Kangxi period through the Qing dynasty and continuing into the Republic Period, inspired initially by the use of Palace gourds as cricket cages. However these early gourds had flat functional lids and not the raised reticulated covers that were later used by the general populace and which was copied here. Another indication of a nineteenth century dating for this bottle was the increasing popularity of using one material which resembled another, in this case one material which resembles two others! Whoever was the scholarly owner of this miniature cricket cage fashioned as a snuff bottle, he would have enjoyed immensely its form and material, and also the knowledge that this was unique in his own snuff bottle collection and possibly in others also. The Crane Collection is not only fortunate to have this example, but exceptionally lucky that it still is accompanied by its original stopper.

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