B51

Chalcedony dark honey colour with an opaque white skin cleverly carved with a squirrel busy on a grape-laden vine, its tail following the upper line of a leaf, above to the right is a bat in flight, the well-hollowed bottle of rounded form.

Chinese, 1750-1860
Stopper: coral mounted on metal
Provenance: Hugh Moss, 1974
Height: 6cm

Here the artist uses the white skin and natural mixed colour to great dramatic effect. The subject, a favourite with workshops in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is to be found in various other materials.