Lot Essay
Based on the size, material and ingenious use of the natural markings in the stone, we can likely attribute this bottle to the second phase of production of the Suzhou school. As Moss points out, "The second phase probably began to evolve during the Kangxi period but was certainly established by the early Qianlong...One feature of this classic group is that many of them are fairly large bottles, and as we have already suggested, large bottles do not seem to have evolved as a standard form until the Qianlong period" (see Moss and Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, 1993, p. 66).