A large Chinese brownish agate snuff bottle fine brown markings in the stone, rectangular form, shoulders carved with mask and handles, resting on an oval standring. Stopper of jasper in a metal setting. Qianlong-Daoguang 1760–1850. H. 9 cm. Provenance: Ralph Dessau's collectionRalph Dessau was born in Copenhagen 1928 and died in 2016 in USA. In 1953 he graduated as chemical engineer from the Technical University in Copenhagen and had a career in the oil industries.His fascination with snuff bottles began at an early age with a profound interest in the small collection of his parents and a more important collection of an aunt, who lived in Paris. These two collections eventually became the core of his own. He became member of the Chinese Snuff Bottle Society and travelled to Beijing and Hong Kong for the Conventions.Literature: Summer 1996 - Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society v. 28 no. 2, pp. 11–18. Exposing Snuff bottle secrets with black light by Ralph B. Dessau