Known as the Bailan Collection for the US collector’s fondness for the white orchid, trade dominated bidding and secured all the top entries.
The biggest money was reserved for a black and white jade bottle, school of Zhiting, Suzhou, 1750-1820, of flattened form. The carver skilfully utilised the coloured inclusions of the jade. One side was decorated with a galloping horse enveloped by clouds in a mountainous landscape, and the other with a lone tree on a rocky knoll with a poetic inscription referring to the pleasure of taking snuff: Fragrance inhaled through the nose, happiness moves his eyebrows.
Although it failed to reach its lofty $80,000-120,000 expectations, it elicited a $65,000 (£47,100) trade bid.
Not to be sniffed at
Christie’s, Blanche B. Exstein Collection of Fine Snuff Bottles, March 21: Snuff bottles may not be to every collector’s taste, but Christie’s Blanche B. Exstein Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles achieved that rarest of auction phenomena: a 100 per cent sell-out by lot and by value.
