A BANDED AGATE SNUFF BOTTLE
1750-1860
Of flattened, squared form with rounded shoulders sloping to a cylindrical neck, and with a neatly carved oval footrim, very well-hollowed, with bands of white, gray and cream running concentrically around the honey-brown bottle; stopper.
2 3/8in (6.1cm) high
Footnotes:
1750-1860 玉帶瑪瑙鼻煙壺一件

Provenance:
Sotheby's New York, May 28, 1980, lot 177
Alice B. McReynolds
Sotheby's Los Angeles, CA., October 31, 1984, lot 99
Joan and Ted Dorf Collection, no. 193

Agate is a banded, multi-colored variety of chalcedony. It occurs in a boundless amount of colors and patterns and, as such, no two agate bottles will ever be identical. As a stone, the extraordinary beauty and uniqueness of agate was responsible for its great popularity with collectors from the eighteenth century onwards. In the rock it forms in rounded nodules, which must be sliced open to reveal the hidden internal patterns.