Atomo Collection

• Amber
  
  
• Compressed ovoid form
  
  
• Bottle carved from reddish-brown and ochre-yellow amber using the natural colors in the material. Continuous landscape with a gnarled pine tree and complex rock formation near a pair of doors set in the entrance to a cave, with lingzhi fungus, peony and another flower growing nearby. Shou Lao, the God of Longevity, holding a dragon-headed staff, with a young attendant, holding an oar and in the prow of a boat, floating on clouds emerging from a plume from the doors to a cave, towards a rocky shore where a female deity awaits with a sword tied to her back, another in her right hand, and a sprig of lingzhi aloft in her left hand. Other two female deities, one bearing a hoe, the other with a pole over her shoulder to which is attached lingzhi fungus, the neck with a band of pendant acanthus leaves.

Period

• 1760 - 1860

Size

• Height cm. 6.3
• Mouth cm. 0.5
• Lip cm. 1.2

Stopper

• Stone with metal collar

Provenance

• J & J collection
• Christie's New York - auction 29 March 2006 (The J & J Collection) - Parte III - Lot 39
• Robert Kleiner

Exhibited

• 41st Convention I.C.S.B.S., Dublin, October 2009
• Palazzina delle Arti: Museo del Sigillo (Seal Museum), La Spezia - Italy, November 2010 - January 2011

Published

• Li Ying Hao, "Appreciation of Snuff Bottles" (Bao Tze Bi Yen Hu) - June 2000 - Lianin Picture Printer Publisher - p. 104, bottom (third) row, middle photo
• Atomo Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Foti, no. 25, p. 30
• Journal ICSBS - Autumn 2010 - Vol XLII number 2 - P. 29 - Fig. 3