Snuff Bottle
1750-1909 (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, transparent with a white tinge, with overlay of green glass carved in relief |
Brief description | Cer, China, Qing, GLASS, OVERLAY |
Physical description | The bottle is a flattened pear form with no stopper. It is made of glass, transparent with a white tinge, densely mottled with white flecks, with overlay of green glass carved in relief. The decoration depicts a badger and a magpie beneath a pine tree growing from a rock. On the reverse there is a cat looking up at a butterfly, beside a plant in a square pot. The splayed foot is partly formed by the overlay, with angular indentation underneath. The badger, huan, looking up at the sky and the magpie, sique, looking down at the ground represent the phrase Huan tian xi di, 'Delight in heaven and happiness on earth' (Zhongguo Jixiang Tu'an, 1978, p.152). The word for butterfly, die, is a homonym with the word for 'seventy' and the word for cat, mao, sounds like the word for 'eighty'; together they form maodie meaning 'long life' (Bartholemew, 1988). |
Dimensions |
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Style | |
Credit line | Salting Bequest |
Object history | Bequeathed by Mr. George Salting, accessioned in 1910. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project. |
Subjects depicted | |
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 | C.1678-1910 |
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Record created | July 10, 1998 |
Record URL |
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