A TURQUOISE MATRIX ‘PLAYING BUDDHIST LIONS’ SNUFF BOTTLE, QING DYNASTYTurquoise of deep greenish color, with a few brighter areas, marked with some well-figured matrix, some unusual speckling across both faces of the bottle, and some intriguing darker staining, partly due to handling but too well defined to stem purely from patination. China, late 18th - mid 19th centuryCarved in relief to depict two Buddhist lions, one each side, chasing a brocade ball, with some neatly incised detail work completing the amusing scene.“The universal gem standard for turquoise is that the more brilliant the sky-blue color the more valuable the stone, but in China it is clear from that both green and blue veined material was equally valued. The evidence lies in snuff bottles in other materials that evoke turquoise. Of the entire turquoise range of Qing glass snuff bottles, many more are of a green tint than a sky-blue one. Porcelain imitations of the material are even more informative. Both the green and blue varieties are regularly copied during the mid-Qing period. One of the finest imitation turquoise bottles is published in Kleiner 1990, no. 131. It probably dates from the late 18th century and is of a distinctly green color. In the same publication, a magnificent and unique porcelain bottle made for the Master of the Xie Bamboos, whose hall name appears on other known porcelains of the first half of the 19th century, simulates a turquoise-matrix bottle with panels of calligraphy in iron-red on white. Not only is the color unambiguously green, it is as riddled with black matrix markings as any of the real material carved into bottles. There are others in enameled Yixing pottery from the first half of the nineteenth century that simulate greenish turquoise (see Stevens 1976, no. 337).” © Sotheby’s, see literature comparison.Shape: Flattened heart formHollowing: FairMouth, neck and lip: Short, sprawling round neck with slanted inner and outer lip, flat top, and cylindric mouthBase: Flat navette-shaped baseStopper: Green jasper of dark and even colorHeight of the bottle with stopper: 5.8 cm.Width of the mouth: 7 mm.Width of the neck: 16 mm.Condition: Excellent, with few natural stress linesProvenance: Stephen Max Kellen, founder of the American Academy in Berlin; THE ANNA-MARIA AND STEPHEN KELLEN FOUNDATION, NEW YORKLiterature comparison: Snuff Bottles from the Mary & George Bloch Collection: Part VIII. Sotheby’s, HONG KONG, May 26th, 2014, lot 1068. (for a bottle of almost identical shape, color and stone structure, but with no depiction) Bob C. Stevens, The Collectors Book of Snuff Bottles, Weatherhill, New York, 1980, lot 623. (for a bottle of similar shape, yet with a depiction of an archaic bronze vessel, dated to late 18th century) 清代綠松石“獅戯“鼻烟壺品相極好，稍有自然形成的細紋柏林美國學院創始人史蒂文∙馬克斯∙ 科冷Stephen Max Kellen；紐約安娜∙ 瑪利亞與史蒂文∙馬克斯∙ 科冷基金會