Strange Chinese Bottle - any info?

[Ryan]

I found this at a yard sale this weekend, and I thought it was pretty interesting. It is very crude and chock full of fizz and bubbles, very similar to a couple tiny little opium or medicine bottles from an old Chinese camp I have circa 1850's-1860's.

This one is a much different shape though and actually has embossing, though it is in Chinese.

It is round and measures 2 3/4" tall...

It was with some other old bottles and has some dirt in it and stain so I'm assuming it was dug and is not a repro.

Has anyone ever seen one like this?

Thanks for any info...

-Ryan

 

[IRISH]

I've seen a lot of Chinese bottles found all up the east coast of Australia but I've never seen that one [] . It's typical crude Chinese glass, if you bring it to a Chinese restaurant or the like they may be able to read it for you or atleast tell you what sort of Chinese the writings in (I know a collector who id's everything Chinese at his local tackaway [] ).
Nice little bottle.

 

[Ryan]

That's hilarious, here I am looking all over the world (on the internet) for people to help me translate this when I have people that can probably help me just a few blocks down the street (Chinese restaurant). Who knows how long it would have taken me to figure that one out. I guess that's what they mean by being smart but not necessarily wise. []

Thanks for the tip!

So when did the Chinese arrive en masse in Australia? Were they working in the gold fields like in the U.S.?

-Ryan

 

[kumtow]

The Chinese arrived early in the gold rush era of Australia. Seems it didn't take long for word of gold strikes to get around the world. Had lots of American diggers in Australia as well.

 

[IRISH]

As Kumtow said they arrived in their thousands (or tens of thousands for that matter) in the early 1850's, the Goldrush started in 1851 and continued for more than 50 years and the Chinese where here the whole time, the last great rush (not counting modern detector one's [] ) in Victoria was the Poseidon rush in 1906.
I don't think there was a nation in the world at that time that didn't have some of it's people digging in Australia [] .

 

[George Ingraham]

That is a cool bottle.. Hard to tell if it was a medicine or snuff bottle. I am leaning towards a medicine bottle.

It looks like it was carved from a ingot ( glass block ) because of the bubbles..

I would love to have it in my collection !

Nice one !