A rare incised and signed coconut shell snuff bottle
Signed Xuexuan, circa 1810-1900
Of flattened oviform shape, the two sides conjoined along the very narrow edges, one main face carved engraved with a prunus spray and the three-character inscription, the other with a seven-character poem in large characters followed by seven smaller characters which includes the signature.
2 1/2in (6.3cm) high, stopper
Footnotes:
約1810-1900年 椰殼雕花鳥詩文鼻煙壺 《雪軒》款

Provenance:
A. Fernandez, Buenos Aires, September 1994

The subject of the poetic inscription is in praise of the fragrance of the prunus blossoms.

For a similarly decorated coconut shell bottle with flowering prunus to one side and a poetic inscription followed by the signature of the carver Lu Jun on the other, see Denis S.K. Low, More Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect III, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 292, no. 269. For another of similar profile and incised with a pine landscape on one side and an excerpt of a Wang Wei poem, followed by the signature Yun Ying, see Christie's, New York, 22-23 March 2012, lot 1561.

See Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 7, Part 1, Organic, Metal, Mixed Media, pp. 58-74, no's. 1486-1493, for a range of bottles from this group. The authors note that the bottles are made in sections from the shell of the ubiquitous tropical coconut and joined together by pins and glue. The subject of coconut bottles, their attribution and dating is further developed by Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent in two articles published in the ICSBS Journal, Autumn 2013, and Autumn 2014, entitled 'Coconut Shell Snuff Bottles, Part I & II'.

For other signed coconut bottles variously dated to the nineteenth century see, Bonhams, Hong Kong, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Part I, 28 May 2010, lot 66, dated 1875 (or 1815) and Bonhams, New York, 17 March 2014, lot 8014.