Chinese snuff bottle, Qing Dynasty; 1796-1850, porcelain with painted decoration and gilded metal.

The bottle is a flattened ovoid form and the stopper rises in curved steps to a finial.
It is made of porcelain, painted in blue and red, moulded as a perforated outer casing over a blue body. Gilded metal covers the neck and forms a neck-rim.
The stopper is of coral set in metal.
The decoration depicts nine lions playing with brocaded balls; lappet borders at the shoulders and base; a key-fret border around the neck.
The low foot has a shallow gilded indentation underneath.
The metal neck-fitting partly obscures the key-fret border around the neck and must have been added to the bottle sometime after it was made, perhaps because the neck was broken.

Salting Bequest

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.

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.

C.1703&A-1910