Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Rastella, post: 338881, member: 6722&quot;]I really believe I may have something special here.&nbsp; It was crudely attached with silicone in an old handmade shadow box (story how I bought it below).</p><p><br /></p><p>The Attributes:</p><p><br /></p><p>The metal work is hand created.</p><p><br /></p><p>Except for a simple magnet test that did not stick, I have not tested the silver to confirm my observations:</p><p><br /></p><p>For the silver frame including base, side strips and neck - silver with signs of faded gold gilt.</p><p><br /></p><p>For the chain design (made to look like chain, but is not moveable like a chain) - copper with silver overlay.</p><p><br /></p><p>For the small 4 designs on side (two frogs, one dragon and one phoenix) - either sterling silver with signs of faded gold gilt -&nbsp; or quite possibly platinum as they do not show signs in the crevices of darkening. Granted, I&#039;m sure this was cleaned but I compared it with the crevices in the silver frame which have darkened as would be expected.</p><p><br /></p><p>For the large dragon and phoenix - very possibly old gold.&nbsp; They do not have the same color nor the same aging signs as the silver frame work (more olive golden with no signs of silver peaking through even were gold gilt might have been) and the crevices have taken on a much blacker appearance with no rust. They feel more weighted and the effort to keep them in place is very apparent.</p><p><br /></p><p>The porcelain is a beautiful mirror-like solid cobalt blue with over glaze.&nbsp; Quoted from the metmuseum.org, &quot;Porcelain decorated only in blue pigment painted under the glaze dominated the export trade until the very end of the seventeenth century.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>The bottom has the attributes of the well known export ware known as kraak with the deep middle indentation and the sandy-like grains from the kiln that adhered to the unglazed rim during firing.</p><p><br /></p><p>It looks like there is a maker&#039;s mark or stamp on the dragon&#039;s tail.&nbsp; I took it to a jeweler and when he looked at it under his magnifying equipment, I saw his eyes nearly pop out of his head.&nbsp; I just wanted to see if he could test the dragon for gold without hurting it which he could not do, so I thanked him and left.&nbsp; I took a closer look and discovered the design in the middle of the tail wasn&#039;t congruent and it looks like a maker&#039;s mark or stamp of some sort.</p><p><br /></p><p>How I found it:&nbsp; I just recently bought it through Facebook Marketplace. I was looking for a shadow box for my own things and came across one with some sort of Chinese brass metal object in it.&nbsp; The shadow box had been painted a couple of times so I thought it may be a good solid one that I could refinish.&nbsp; I contacted the seller and over the course of the conversation, she mentioned that she gave a matching shadow box to her friend. They were going to be tossed out so she thought she would see if she could get a little money for this one first.&nbsp; That made sense because it is right after Hurricane Harvey and there is a lot of cleaning up and tossing out going on in Houston.&nbsp; I told her if her friend wanted to sell hers, too, I would buy both of them so I could have a matching pair of shadow boxes.&nbsp; I met up with her husband the next morning and followed him to the friend&#039;s place.&nbsp; The friend gave him the second shadow box with this snuff bottle in it and he gave it to me.&nbsp; (I thought it was going to be another metal object and wasn&#039;t concerned with what was inside).&nbsp; He took the money and left.&nbsp; I turned to the friend and said, &quot;Well, that doesn&#039;t seem quite fair.&quot;&nbsp; She responded, &quot;Naw, it&#039;s alright.&nbsp; It didn&#039;t have any sentimental value.&quot;&nbsp; We talked and I ended up buying a small modern display sword from her for my grandson.</p><p><br /></p><p>The glass on the shadow box was rather thick and dirty so it was hard to tell anything other than it was a bottle.&nbsp; I took it to be nothing more than decoration.&nbsp; The shadow box was homemade and I was really happy with the wood.&nbsp; However, it looked as if it had been repaired and repainted several times.&nbsp; I began to dismantle it.&nbsp; When I got the backing off, I noticed the mounting job was really bad.&nbsp; The bottle was mounted to the back with a thick layer of silicone and the stopper was siliconed to the bottle.&nbsp; So thick that I couldn&#039;t see that there was a Phoenix on that side.&nbsp; As I began removing the silicone, which was a rather easy but very slow process, it started becoming apparent that this was a really old bottle.&nbsp; In fact, I have not removed all of the little bits of silicone as you can see in the pictures because I don&#039;t want to risk damaging it.&nbsp; No picture of phoenix side yet.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think it warrants further investigation.&nbsp; What should I do from here?&nbsp; Advice on honest and knowledgeable auction houses for Chinese snuff bottles?&nbsp; Thank you!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Residual silicone from being attached to shadow box still shows on topper stem and some pictures.[ATTACH=full]113772[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]113773[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]113774[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]113775[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]113776[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]113780[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Residual silicone still shows on stem from being attached to bottle.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]113781[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in