The bottle is of slender spade shape, intricately decorated on each side with panels enclosing phoenix and kylin, using pieces of mother-of-pearl of differing colour, reserved on a stippled ground decorated with a stylised foliate scroll. It has a matching stopper, 6.2cm.
The technique of inlaying mother-of-pearl was popular in China from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) onwards, but did not appear in Japan until the 19th Century.
The stippled ground of this example is a peculiarly Japanese technique and most bottles in this medium are Japanese.
It is one of very few Japanese bottles in the Burghley collection of snuff bottles.
