Chinese Export Silver Book-Shaped Snuff Box by Yao Jie

This elegant, small Chinese export silver snuff box is in the form of a book. The front ‘cover’ is hinged and engraved with peony sprays against a tooled background. The back ‘cover’ is plain. The sides are engraved with lines to suggest pages and the ‘spine’ is rounded and ribbed to suggest leather binding.

The interior of the lid is stamped with the Chinese mark 堯階 or Yao Jie. This is a relatively rare mark and is probably a retailer or maker’s mark from southern China or Hong Kong.

A similar but apparently unmarked example is illustrated in Spink (1985, p. 56.)

The box is in fine condition.