Snuff Bottle
1850-1880 (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, coloured opaque white and overlayed with pink glass, with incised and carved decoration |
Brief description | Glass snuff bottle, coloured opaque white and overlayed with pink glass, incised and carved decoration, China, 1850-1880 |
Physical description | The bottle is a spade-shaped flattened flask form of opaque white glass, with an overlay of pink glass partly cut away. The decoration consists of a very simplified design of a peach with leaves and branches on each side. There is a smaller peach on each shoulder and a band of pink overlay around neckrim. The glass has a waxy quality in appearance; the partial nature of the carving and incising suggests that it may be unfinished. The lack of attention applied to the carving suggests a date during the period of disruption in China between 1850 and 1870, or slightly later. The bottle has a faceted foot formed by overlay with a solid underneath. |
Dimensions |
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Style | |
Object history | Purchased from Professor Lessing (Kunstgewerbe Museum Berlin), accessioned in 1880. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project. Bought, Kunstgewerbe Museum Berlin per Prof Lessing |
Production | The original register entry states that this bottle was 'Fashioned in Pekin from material prepared in Shantung [Shandong]' and is nineteenth-century. |
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 | 422-1880 |
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Record created | June 11, 1998 |
Record URL |
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