A CYLINDRICAL PUDDINGSTONE SNUFF BOTTLE, 18TH-19TH CENTURYChina. The elegant yet traditional ‘Rouleau’ form is supported on a circular foot ring and rises to a short straight neck with a flat rim. The opaque, greyish-brown matrix highlighted with large patches of dark chocolate- and reddish-brown veins.Inscriptions: The spoon inscribed in Japanese, ‘Number 33 Yoneda’.Provenance: From a private collection in South California, USA. Acquired by the previous owner’s stepfather while stationed in Tianjin, China, in the 1920s, and thence by descent in the same family. The base with an old collector’s number, ‘79’.Condition: Very good condition, few tiny nibbles to the rim and foot. The stone with natural fissures.Stopper: Hardstone, stained bone spoon with inscriptionsWeight: 62.1 gDimensions: Height including stopper 86 mm. Diameter neck 12 mm and mouth 5 mmThis simple form may well reflect the deliberate choice of the artist to tame the busy pattern of the material. Similar snuff bottles have the palace-style upper neck rim and tapering form that suggest this type of puddingstone might have been carved at and for the court. A further link between this cylindrical form and the court is to be found in a series of cylindrical glass bottles, many of imperial color and attributable to the court (see, for instance, the ruby glass example in Au Hang 1993, no. 11, which is very similar in shape to this example). Others are known in white nephrite of exactly this form, (see, for instance, Au Hang 1993, no. 99). The existence of a range of different materials in identical form alerts one, as always, to the possibility of an imperial source.Auction resultparison:Type: Closely relatedAuction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 31 May 2015, lot 33Price: HKD 162,500 or approx.EUR 23,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A cylindrical puddingstone snuff bottle, Qing dynasty, 18th / 19th centuryExpert remark:pare the related form and material. Note the size (56 mm).十八至十九世紀抱子石鼻煙壺中國 。圓柱體，直頸，口部略微外撇。此煙壺造型簡潔，變化不一的鵝卵石紋，意態自然，渾然天成。款識：壺勺上刻著日文 ‘卅三米田’