S 99 A fossiliferous limestone snuff bottle

十九世紀中 石化石灰石鼻煙壺

Mid-19th century

The bottle is of flattened rectangular form with rounded shoulders below a slightly waisted neck with a flat lip resting on a neatly carved oval footrim.
The smoothly polished stone has a dense pattern of mushroom-like fossil inclusions amid small circular roundels in gray, yellow and white on an opaque bluish-black body, causing a dramatic effect reminiscent of a moonscape, or the unfathomable sea, where the fossil inclusions unfurl like jellyfish, trailing through the depths.  Agate stopper with gilt metal rim
Height 6.5 cm (without stopper)

See for fossiliferous limestone snuff bottles: Bob Stevens, 'The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles', 1976, Nos. 671-678, 681

S 99 十九世紀中 石化石灰石鼻煙壺

扁瓶式，肩部圓潤，頸部略收，口沿平整，橢圓形圈足雕工精緻。石質經細緻拋光，通體為不透明黑色，其上密布如菌類狀之化石內含物，間雜米色、灰色與白色的小型圓斑，形成宛如月表的視覺效果。

瑪瑙蓋，蓋沿鎏金。

高: 6.5公分（不含蓋）。