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Snuff bottle

Snuff bottle

  • Place of origin:

    China (made)

  • Date:

    1850-1880 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Glass, coloured opaque white and overlayed with pink glass, with incised and carved decoration

  • Museum number:

    422-1880

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

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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.

Physical description

The bottle is a spade-shaped flattened flask form of opaque white glass, with an overlay of pink glass partly cut away.
The decoration consists of a very simplified design of a peach with leaves and branches on each side. There is a smaller peach on each shoulder and a band of pink overlay around neckrim.
The glass has a waxy quality in appearance; the partial nature of the carving and incising suggests that it may be unfinished. The lack of attention applied to the carving suggests a date during the period of disruption in China between 1850 and 1870, or slightly later.
The bottle has a faceted foot formed by overlay with a solid underneath.

Place of Origin

China (made)

Date

1850-1880 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Glass, coloured opaque white and overlayed with pink glass, with incised and carved decoration

Dimensions

Height: 5.7 cm

Descriptive line

Glass snuff bottle, coloured opaque white and overlayed with pink glass, incised and carved decoration, China, 1850-1880

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

White, Helen. Snuff Bottles from China. London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1992. 291p., ill. ISBN 1870076109.

Production Note

The original register entry states that this bottle was 'Fashioned in Pekin from material prepared in Shantung [Shandong]' and is nineteenth-century.

Materials

Glass

Techniques

Carving; Incising

Subjects depicted

Peach

Categories

Containers; Personal accessories; Glass

Collection code

EAS

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Qr_O7908
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