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Bottle ID: 712
BASANITE TOUCHSTONE
Date: 1800-1900
Height: 56 mm
Basanite, well hollowed, of flattened rectangular form, with shoulders sloping to a cylindrical neck and with a neatly carved concave oval footrim, the two narrow sides with concave oval panels, the stone of a pure black color.
Similar Examples:
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1998, Vol. 2, Part 1, pp. 112-113, no. 222 (jasper).
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1998, Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 476-477, no. 357 (agate).
Chang Lin-sheng. Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, 1991, p.167, no. 166 (white jade).
Provenance:
Sotheby's Hong Kong, June 1st, 2015, lot 50
The Collection of Mary and George Bloch
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.
Zhirou Zhai Collection, Hong Kong
Published:
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1998, Vol. 2, Part 1, pp. 79-80, no. 209.
Basanite is a type of jasper and part of the quartz family. It is also known as black jasper or 'touchstone'. A touchstone earns its name because of its ability to show the quality of gold or silver when that metal is rubbed onto the stone. The color of the resultant streak of metal is indicative of its quality to those who are knowledgeable enough to decifer it. There are very few snuff bottles produced from this material and it appears to be unknown outside the snuff bottle world.
The form of this bottle, however, is not unusual and appears from the eighteenth century onwards on bottles made in a variety of materials. There is a white jade example in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, which is rounded rather than elongated, but which clearly has the same type of slightly concave oval panels on the two narrow sides. Equally intriguing is another bottle in the Bloch Collection, fashioned in agate. It is also of a rounded form with concave oval panels on the two narrow sides. What makes it so fascinating is that the two panels are inscribed and include the date - 1797 (made in the dingsi year of the Jiaqing period). Although a wide date has been given for the basanite bottle, it is quite likely that it may have been made earlier in the date range when the form was so appealing to collectors.
One of the most appealing features of some snuff bottles is their tactile quality, often dependant on the size of the bottle and the material from which it is rendered. This quietly elegant bottle epitomises that, with its cool, dark, smooth surfaces and thus is aptly named a 'touchstone'.