Featured Chinese Snuff Bottle or Perfume Bottle?

I am new to the forum but a long-time antiques collector. I have a small Chinese snuff bottle collection and recently came across one that never seeing before. I am not even sure it is a snuff bottle or some other type of container. It measures 4" to the very tip and the bottom diameter is about 1". The design (incised into the piece and painted on top) of fishermen and palm trees is very unusual. The bottom is signed with Chinese characters plus an Artemisia leaf mark. The top body is threated into the bottom and the threats are long worn out. The spoon is shaped like and arrow and flat on one side. I found it at an estate sale that had an extensive collection of (high end) perfume bottles. Any comments and help to identify it will be most appreciated. A similar, much smaller bottle came with this one. This one has a Scholars writing on a scroll design and is marked with four Chinese characters on the side.
Thank you in advance for your comments.

 

What are the materials? No clue if it is or not, but I think the top is meant to resemble rhino horn (it has a fibrous look to these unreliable eyes. Maybe a medicine bottle? Just making guesses.

 

I showed you picture to my wife and she said it is a snuff bottle.

 

I assume the bottom part is hollow so Id guess its a traveling set of some sort.

 

Angela, (my wife) says the larger is a storage container for the snuff and the smaller container for using the snuff.

 

I've never heard of that before.......

 

You know, I took another look and reread the post, I was confused in the pictures the small one looks large and the larger one looks small, there isn’t any sense of perspective against the blank background and told her wrong information. The similarity in style the small one would be too as was mentioned pocket size when out and about.

 

the top looks like water buffalo horn..

 

did they make travel size opium containers?


can't see the "spoon" !

 

snuff bottles seem to cover every single small bottle on google

https://picclick.fr/Vintage-Chinese-porcelain-Snuff-Bottle-20th-century-276444490516.html

so it could be a perfume bottle too !

 

Similar but different, https://www.etsy.com/listing/507143456/asian-painted-bovine-bone-and-wooden?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=asian+woman+snuff&ref=sr_gallery-1-3&frs=1&content_source=d78cf234fe38fcf38135612191ce46044d7fb073%3A507143456&organic_search_click=1

if it would hold a liquid could it be to combat the smell walking through areas in the city with no sewers, I forget what they were called, butit held the perfume scent. This you could dab a little in each nostril.

 

vinaigrettes


but they were small boxes that the faint hearted smelt

( and didn't dab it anywhere ! )

 

Thank you for your comments. I am posting a couple of more pics hoping it will help. It shows the top and bottom parts and how they were supposed to be threated together. Threats are long worn out and the top basically pops into the bottom. It also better shows the spoon. As for the materials I am also not sure. Could the top be green jade? The bottom I am not sure either. The bottom part is definitively a container and the top a hallowed cover to be threated into the bottom. The spoon slips through a hole on the top and is long enough to reach to the bottom of the top piece and not to the bottom container. So, either the material inside had to overflow inside the top, so it can be touched by the spoon, or you had to unthread the top to reach inside the bottom. The bottom part is about 1-3/4" the top about the same. Overall, to the very top of the spoon, when all together about 4". Please let me know if additional pictures will help.

 

Welcome, fellow snuff bottle collector.
Could we see a close up of the spoon please?
Is there an opening between the two parts of the bottle proper, with the top part being hollow all the way?

I have never seen this specific combination of materials before either. I agree with komo that the top part looks like buffalo horn. Which, along with the palm tree decor, would place it in southern China or a bordering country. Vietnam is also known for making snuff bottles, and I wonder if Thailand could be a contender. The Thai copy Chinese styles.
The marks could have been copied from Chinese pieces, and the combination of the artemisia leaf mark with script is unusual.

 

Thank you, we cross-posted, but that answers my questions.

Am I right, does the bottom half not have threading? Could it be a marriage?

 

No, it is horn, which can be greenish.

If it weren't for the spoon I would think the top half, including the stopper, came from an Indian buffalo horn kohl bottle.

 

Definitely not a marriage. The bottom part has threating but they are mostly worn out. I am also posting pics that show the small bottle that came with this one. Same design with the spoon going into the bottom container. I am thinking now that the spoon for the large one may have been longer and at some point it got shorter. The small bottle is about 3" long with a very small diameter of 5/8" at the bottom. Very classic Chinese theme and four Chinese characters on the side.

 

Yes, they could have been by the same maker, or made in the same region.
I wonder of the lower half of both bottles is bone. So a buffalo horn and buffalo bone combo.

 

That makes sense. Using the loop on the bottom you can see small dark dots and lines characteristics of bone. You can also see that in the close first up pic above. You can also see/feel porosity inside.
Any conclusions as to origin and age?