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Snuff bottle

Snuff bottle

  • Place of origin:

    China (made)

  • Date:

    1750-1895 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Chalcedony with carved relief decoration and a stopper of yellow glass, quartz coloured pink and a pearl

  • Credit Line:

    Salting Bequest

  • Museum number:

    C.1778-1910

  • 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 round flattened flask form curving to narrow flat base. It has a three-part stopper.
It is made of chalcedony, honey colour with dark brown inclusions, with decoration carved in relief. The stopper is of yellow glass, quartz coloured pink and a pearl.
The decoration depicts a boy and three-legged toad on water, the boy sitting on a lotus leaf and holding a peach and clouds overhead. On the reverse there is a man and a boy sitting in a landscape with pine, magic fungus, clouds and vapour.
The bottle does not have a foot but instead a small oval flat base.
The dark brown inclusions are incorporated well in the carved decoration; densely incised curved lines are used in the carving of the waves and clouds which frame the scenes. The boy and the lotus leaf form a rebus meaning 'Noble sons born in succession', since the Chinese word for lotus, lian, also means 'in succession'. The three-legged toad is a reference to the boy Liu Hai for whom a three-legged toad spat out gold coins, bringing sudden wealth.

Place of Origin

China (made)

Date

1750-1895 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Chalcedony with carved relief decoration and a stopper of yellow glass, quartz coloured pink and a pearl

Dimensions

Height: 6.7 cm

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.

Materials

Glass; Pearl; Chalcedony; Quartz

Techniques

Carving; Incising

Subjects depicted

Men; Landscapes (representations); Boys; Lotus; Water; Pine; Magic fungus; Peach; Toad (amphibian)

Categories

Containers; Personal accessories

Collection code

EAS

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Qr_O8433
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