Snuff Bottle
1736-1850 (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 | Carved and coloured glass |
Brief description | Cer, China, Qing, glass |
Physical description | The bottle is a slender cylindrical form, narrower towards the base, the shoulders sloping up to a splayed neck. It has dome-shaped stopper. The bottle is made of glass, green, with carved decoration; the stopper of blue glass with carved decoration. The carved decoration on the bottle depicts five bats among clouds; the stopper has an archaic scroll decoration and a finial. There is no foot but a flat base with a slightly curved indentation underneath. The glass is coloured to imitate aquamarine and is of good quality, not having been cooled too quickly. It has been well carved with a shallow frosted line. The glass and workmanship of the stopper are not of such high quality. The monochrome carving in imitation of aquamarine in this unusually elongated bottle suggests a relatively early date. The stopper may be a replacement for the original but dates from before 1895, when both the stopper and the bottle entered the Museum. |
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.1686-1910 |
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Record created | August 5, 1998 |
Record URL |
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