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.
Physical description
The bottle is in the form of a large horn-shaped gourd. It has shoulders curving into a cylindrical neck with a very wide neck-hole and no stopper.
It is made of porcelain, moulded in low relief and painted in enamel colours, black, green, yellow and red.
A black ground covers the whole bottle and on each of the two sides is a vine and a butterfly.
It does not have a foot or a base and is not freestanding.
Place of Origin
China (made)
Date
1796-1909 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown
Materials and Techniques
Moulded porcelain with painted enamel decoration
Dimensions
Height: 10.3 cm
Descriptive line
Chinese snuff bottle; 1796-1909, Qing Dynasty; porcelain with decoration painted in enamels, depicting vines and butterflies.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
White, Helen. Snuff Bottles from China. London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1992. 291p., ill. ISBN 1870076109.
Materials
Porcelain; Enamel
Techniques
Painting (image-making); Moulding
Subjects depicted
Vines; Butterfly
Categories
ELISE; Containers; Personal accessories; Ceramics
Collection
East Asia Collection