A RARE CARVED BLUE 'COIN' GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE, 1796-1830Translucent aquamarine blue glass, carved and neatly incised in deep and high reliefChina, Jiaqing to earlier Daoguang period, 1796-1830Deeply and skillfully carved on the two main sides with the obverse and reverse of a Mexican eight-real coin bearing the head of Charles IIII of Spain encircled by the legend CAROLUS?III (sic)?DEI?GRATIA?1796 and the reverse with the Spanish coat of arms, again in good detail, and the continued legend HISPAN?ET IND REX?MO?8R?F?M. The shoulders, base and neck neatly incised with key fret borders. The earliest possible date for this example, for obvious reasons, is 1796, but it is highly unlikely that a coin fresh from the mint would find its way into a Chinese lapidary workshop in China in the same year, hence the dating 1796-1830. The inscription incorrectly reads ‘CAROLUS III’ instead of ‘CAROLUS IIII’, which is either the result of an incorrectly minted coin having been the model for this bottle, or of a carver who simply didn’t pick up the increase in numbering. The latter seems possible, because in 1796 a significant number of ‘CAROLUS III’ bottles had already been produced, and since the two emperors have a strong resemblance, a carver accustomed to inscribing the “CAROLUS III” legend to earlier bottles may not have noticed the change. Either way, this bottle belongs to a series depicting the Spanish silver dollar which, along with its gold counterpart, was standard international currency in global trading during the 19th century. Such bottles are usually of rock crystal but are also found in other types of quartz, and nephrite, and very rarely, in glass. This excellent example exhibits a faithful reproduction of the original coin, including all the text, which would have meant nothing to a Chinese lapidary and was frequently reduced to mirror images, a pastiche, or meaningless squiggles. The 'M' with the distinctive small circle over it indicates production at the Mexican mint. The arrangement of the obverse and reverse of the coin on different sides of the bottle perfectly suits the Chinese taste for panels of decoration. The minuscule yet clearly visible milled edge of the coin on the present bottle creates the panel frame and certainly posed a significant challenge to the carver. Milled edges on coinage were introduced at a time when coins were made of precious metal, to prevent the clipping of small amounts of valuable material from the edges of coins.For a deeper discussion on these coins, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, vol. 2, Quartz, no. 238, where it is noted: Of the known early coin bottles, almost all of them reproduce coins minted in Mexico during the reign of Charles III (1760-1788) or his son Charles IV (1788-1808). The earliest date noted so far on one of these coin bottles is 1780 and the latest 1801, with many examples for the years 1789-1798, which coincides almost exactly with the period when commerce between China and the United States intensified, the first American trading vessel having arrived in Guangzhou in 1785. After the American War of Independence, the United States accepted the eight-real coins as their official currency. It was not until 1785 that a new American-style silver dollar was approved by congress, but no coins were struck until 1794. American traders to China would have been using mostly Mexican dollars in the early trading years and were almost certainly the main impetus behind this new type of snuff bottle. Shape: Flattened round shapeHollowing: StandardMouth, neck and lip: Short cylindric neck, flat top, slanted lip, wide mouthBase: Small oval and convex baseStopper: Rose quartz on black platelet with good old spoonHeight of the bottle with stopper: 6.3 cm.Width of the mouth: 8 mm.Width of the neck: 18 mm.Weight: 74.7 gramsCondition: Absolutely perfect conditionProvenance: Hungarian private collectionLiterature comparison: For further information on the coins copied and the group in general, see Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, page 633, a glass overlay bottle, and Moss 1971, pp. 75 -- 78, and for another example in crystal of similar form see Stevens 1976, no. 459. In the same publication, no. 467 is a crystal bottle with a copy of a Maria Theresa thaler of 1765, a coin that was less frequently copied onto snuff bottles. Another Maria Theresa thaler, in aragonite, is illustrated by Lawrence 1996, no. 31. A crystal example of the Charles III coin without the lobed body is illustrated in Jutheau 1980, p. 111, no. 7, as is another, but copying a Charles IV coin of 1789 is Sin, Hui, and Kwong 1996, no. 215, and there is an example in orange quartz or quartzite, which is an alternative but rarer variant to the crystal examples, in Geng and Zhao 1992, no. 328.Auction result comparison: J & J COLLECTION OF SNUFF BOTTLES, PART III. Christies, New York, 29 March 2006, lot 68. (for a glass overlay bottle with the portrait of Charles the IV)罕見藍料浮雕西方硬幣頭像紋鼻烟壺,1796-1830半透明藍料玻璃,深浮雕中國,嘉慶-道光早期,1796-1830壺型: 扁平八瓣圓形掏膛: 規整壺口、頸與唇部:短直頸,平面壺口,寬口底足: 橢圓形小平底壺蓋: 粉晶,黑色托片,很好的老杓壺高(含壺蓋): 6.3 厘米口徑: 8 毫米壺頸寬: 18 毫米重量: 74.7 克品相: 完美來源: 匈牙利私人收藏