Of the Guyuexuan group, this particular bottle is probably the most unuusal. The moulded and enamelled group is well recorded but no other example of such high-relief moulding is published. Although bottles formed as baskets of flowers are known, all are of the flattened oval variety rather than the lobed and rounded baskets of this example, see Hugh M. Moss, Chinese Bottles From the Collection of the Rt. Hon. The Marquess of Exeter, K.C.M.G., London, 1974, pp. 99-102, E.1-3, E.5, E.8-9; and Rivers and Mountains Far From the World, The Rachell R. Holdon Collection, Hong Kong, 1994, pp. 82-83, pl. 28. It appears that this is also one of the few three-diminsional bottles of this group, most being flattened, and therefore two-dimensional. Another bottle, obviously meant to be seen in the round, like our example, is illustrated by Hugh M. Moss, op. cit., p. 102, pl. E.9 and better illustrated by Robert W.L. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Burghley House Collection, Stamford, England, Catalogue, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 53. That example is carved in high relief with a dragon chasing a flaming pearl on a wave ground. The shape of the neck is identical to ours and interestingly, the ground colour of the waves, an olive-green, highlighted in black, is the same as that of our basket, a colour not usually extensively used on a single bottle.

The depiction of narcissus and prunus can also be favourably compared with that of another flattened bottle illustrated by Robert W.L. Kleiner, op. cit., pl. 55