A GREEN AND WHITE DOUBLE-OVERLAY PINK GLASS ‘SILKWORM’ SNUFF BOTTLE, YANGZHOU SCHOOLChina, c. 1820-1910. The flattened globular body supported on a gently spreading foot and rising to a cylindrical neck, finely carved through the outer white and green layers to the dusky pink ground with a continuous scene of silkworms, silk moths, and cocoons as well as half-eaten mulberry leaves.Provenance: From the collection of Chip and Muffy Matthews, St. Louis, USA. Churchill “Chip” Matthews, Jr. (1940-2021) and Martha “Muffy” Matthews were American collectors of Chinese snuff bottles who traveled extensively. Chip was a US army veteran, who founded the noted medicalpany Wrymark Inc. in 1989. In 2013, their private garden was featured by St. Louis Homes and Lifestyles as the ‘Garden of the Year’.Condition: Excellent condition with some old wear and expected manufacturing irregularities, including a notable open bubble to one side.Stopper: Green glassWeight: 50.9 gDimensions: Height incl. stopper 70 mm. Diameter neck 18 mm and mouth 7 mmExpert’s note: The present lot is a rare double overlay from the Yangzhou school of the popular silkworm design. This subject is usually found in single overlay bottles only. Hugh Moss recently wrote about the Yangzhou and Li Junting school of bottles: “We now know that there was a Yangzhou philanthropist named Li Weizhi with the zi Junting or, read properly, Yunting. Like several Chinese characters, jun has more than one reading. In this case, it is also an ancient form of yun, ‘resonance’, and can be read with that pronunciation. On Treasury 5, no. 1024, we find the name written with the standard yun: ‘For the enjoyment of Yunting himself’. Li Weizhi was a native of Dantu and set up a silk factory in Zhenjiang, right across the Yangtze River from Yangzhou, in 1895. Jingjiang, which [one] bottle tells us is Li’s native place, is an old name for both Dantu (now a district of Zhenjiang) and Zhenjiang. Despite the strong association of this style of glass snuff bottle with Yangzhou, it is possible that Li Weizhi had his bottles made in Zhenjiang. Whatever the case, our new knowledge of Li Yunting’s identity enables us to reassess the bottles we have been ascribing to the ‘Li Junting school’. We are engaged in that process and shall soon be making a full report to the snuff-bottle world.”Auction resultparison:Type: Closely relatedAuction: Hong Kong, 28 May 2010, lot 61Price: HKD 264,000 or approx.EUR 44,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A green and white double-overlay pink glass ‘silkworm production’ snuff bottle, Li Junting School, probably Yangzhou, 1775-1910Expert remark:pare the closely related motif, double overlay, and colors. Note the different form and lacking foot rim.Auction resultparison:Type: RelatedAuction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 4 June 2021, lot 100