Snuff Bottle
1850-1880 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Snuff is powdered tobacco, usually blended with aromatic herbs or spices. The habit of snuff-taking spread to China from the West during the 17th century and became established in the 18th century. People generally carried snuff in a small bottle. By the 20th century these bottles had become collectors' items, owing to the great variety of materials and decorative techniques used in their production.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Glass, coloured purple and polished |
| Brief description | Glass snuff bottle, coloured purple and polished, China, 1850-1880 |
| Physical description | The bottle is an oblong flattened flask form with shoulders sloping up to a wide cylindrical neck without a stopper. It is made of purple glass and each of the four surfaces has a smooth panel with rounded corners. There is a groove running down each corner of the bottle. The foot is faceted, oval in shape and solid underneath. It has very smooth polished surfaces. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Object history | Purchased from Professor Lessing (Kunstgewerbe Museum Berlin), accessioned in 1880. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project. Bought, Kunstgewerbe Museum Berlin per Prof Lessing |
| Production | The original register entry states that this bottle was 'Fashioned in Pekin from material prepared in Shantung [Shandong]' and is nineteenth-century. |
| Summary | Snuff is powdered tobacco, usually blended with aromatic herbs or spices. The habit of snuff-taking spread to China from the West during the 17th century and became established in the 18th century. People generally carried snuff in a small bottle. By the 20th century these bottles had become collectors' items, owing to the great variety of materials and decorative techniques used in their production. |
| Bibliographic reference | White, Helen. Snuff Bottles from China. London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1992. 291p., ill. ISBN 1870076109. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 430-1880 |
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| Record created | June 11, 1998 |
| Record URL |
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