Chinese snuff bottle, 1796-1850, Qing dynasty; porcelain, with painted decoration depicitng pine, nandina and wintersweet.

The bottle is a Meiping jar form with a dome-shaped stopper.
It is made of porcelain, painted in underglaze blue. The stopper is made of a brown material, perhaps resin, set in metal.
The decoration depicts a pine tree, nandina and possibly wintersweet. Also eight birds, a flying insect and magic fungus. There is a debased spearhead border at the neck, with two blue lines around the base of the neck.
It does not have a separate foot and there is a high curved indentation underneath with a four-character Yongzheng (1723-35) mark in blue.
Pine, nandina, called tianzhu meaning 'heavenly bamboo' and wintersweet, which resembles prunus, are sometimes combined as a reference to the 'Three Friends of Winter' - pine, bamboo and prunus.

Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology

Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology (Jermyn Street, London), accessioned in 1901. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.

This bottle was transferred to the Museum from the Museum of Practical Geology, which acquired little non-mineral material after 1880.

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.

4837-1901