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, opaque mottled white, with blue glass overlay carved in relief |
| Brief description | Snuff bottle, overlay glass, blue on white, palace and fish |
| Physical description | The bottle is a rounded flattened flask form with no stopper. It is made of glass, opaque mottled white, with blue glass overlay carved in relief. The decoration depicts a fish spouting a palace and the same design is carved on the reverse. There are mock ring handles on each shoulder. The high foot is overlaid with blue glass, with angular indentation underneath. The carving is very crude and the details roughly incised. |
| 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 the bottle was 'Fashioned in Pekin from material prepared in Shantung' 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 | 434-1880 |
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| Record created | July 7, 1998 |
| Record URL |
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