
When the collection of antique Chinese snuff bottles, you can choose to collect glass, porcelain, bottles made of organic material (such as amber or coral), or perhaps the inside painted bottles, but it is sure to be a time when you decide to collect, or at least add some bottles Hardstone.
Bottles Hardstone can be found in a variety of materials such as jade, quartz, agate, crystal hair, tourmaline and many more. There are some wonderful shapes and colors found and even some stone bottles bearing the images, or images, formed from natural inclusions found in the rock.
When catalogs auctions will be the study of one occasionally found within the description of the old stone bottles, the comment â € ~ well hollowedâ € ™ as well as when talking about the bottles with a distributor of this term is also used. When this comment is do not worry, like all good stone bottles old and should â € ~ hollowedâ € ™, and if not suspected to be false!
Antique Chinese snuff bottles were made to be used and had to be well hollow enough to hold snuff, this raises the question of how well hollowed is â € ~ well hollowedâ € ™? Most good antique bottles are considered void if the bottle or take out a good portion of snuff and does not feel too heavy. Remember, as a guide, often used in manga. But the most valuable bottles of finest stone snuff are exceptionally hollow, so much so that often seem to have been blown (like glass). These are known as â € ~ eggshell Thina € ™ or â € ~ Floaters € ™, because even though they were carved in the rock are fine holes, which float in the water!
These stone bottles are examples of amazing skill, because all has been done emptying through a very small hole in the neck of the bottle. Even areas that we refer to as the shoulders of the bottle (these are the areas most difficult to empty), has to be very light in the bottle to trap enough air to make it float.
There are some wonderful jade bottles that float, but the jade is one of the more difficult to carve the stone is not only a harder material, but also has certain weaknesses in that can fracture easily.
Having shown a couple of bottles (one hole and the other not) lapidary workers, equipped with all modern cutting and drilling tools for find out if I could change the evil emptied the bottle in a hole well and what it would cost. No one could assume the task and the general opinion was that, even if they tried, the cost would be considerable, given the time it would take, but also no one would accept the risk, possibly ruining the bottle in the process!
The explanation of how these antique stone bottles were originally carved and hollowed out so well, down all the years of experience and slow work of love, where the carver did everything by hand without any thought about how long it took.
[affmage source="ebay" results="90"]Carving Snuff[/affmage]