Ivory snuff equipment from China
Qing dynasty (AD 1644-1911)
Length: 27 cm (spoon)
Height: 5.2 cm (funnel)
Diameter: 4.4 cm (saucer)

Chinese Snuff Bottles

Spoons and other items used for taking snuff
Snuff is powdered tobacco, flavoured with various herbs and spices. It is sniffed, rather than smoked. Snuff was probably introduced to China in the seventeenth century by the Jesuits. First used by the early Qing emperors, then other members of the court, the habit of taking snuff spread quickly through Chinese society. This stimulated the production of small, intricately decorated snuff bottles.
Snuff can be ingested from a pinch between the fingers, or from a miniature dish, or from a small spoon attached to the stopper of a snuff bottle.
The three spoons are attached to the corked lids of snuff bottles. They are made of cloisonné, agate and dark stone, respectively. The associated snuff bottles would not necessarily have been made from the same materials. The long ivory spoon would have been used to scoop snuff off the dish. The ivory funnel does not taper, as Western ones do, but has a hole at the bottom.

Lacquer snuff bottle from China
Qing dynasty (AD 1644-1911)
Height: 7.8 cm (including original stopper)

Detailed carving in miniature
Snuff bottles were made of many materials: glass, porcelain, amber, coral, lacquer, ivory and others. The Chinese love carving on a miniature scale and small items, such as snuff bottles, ivory balls, rhino roots and rocks, offer great scope for this art. This lacquer snuff bottle, depicting figures in a landscape, is a good example.
Lacquer, made from the sap of a tree, has been used in China since Neolithic times, for practical and decorative purposes. Many coats must be applied to make an object impermeable. To achieve sufficient thickness for carving, up to 150 layers may be required. Red is the most commonly used colour for carved lacquer. The colouring agent is cinnabar, which comes from mercury and was thought to have special powers.

Glass snuff bottle, made by Liu Shou-ben
Beijing, China, AD 1965
Height: 7 cm (with stopper)

Delicately painted from the inside
Snuff bottles painted on the inside are particularly admired by collectors. This difficult technique uses a very thin bamboo brush, inserted through the narrow neck of the bottle and angled to make the required brush strokes. Glass, rock crystal and chalcedony are the usual materials used. The inside surface must be slightly rough for the water-based pigments to adhere. On glass, this is achieved with an acid solution.
Gan Xuanwen, active in the early part of the nineteenth century, is the first documented artist of inside-painted snuff bottles. Other artists worked in this style throughout the century, but it was in the 1870s that the medium began to flourish. A huge quantity of these snuff bottles were made between the 1890s and 1920s. Many were produced for purely commercial reasons, but some painters created fine works of art.
This bottle was made in 1965 and signed by the artist. It is delicately painted with traditional motifs, a fisherman in a sampan and a deity in a logboat.