Snuff bottle, 1736-1850

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.

The bottle is a slender cylindrical form, narrower towards the base, the shoulders sloping up to a splayed neck. It has dome-shaped stopper. The bottle is made of glass, green, with carved decoration; the stopper of blue glass with carved decoration. The carved decoration on the bottle depicts five bats among clouds; the stopper has an archaic scroll decoration and a finial. There is no foot but a flat base with a slightly curved indentation underneath.

The glass is coloured to imitate aquamarine and is of good quality, not having been cooled too quickly. It has been well carved with a shallow frosted line. The glass and workmanship of the stopper are not of such high quality. The monochrome carving in imitation of aquamarine in this unusually elongated bottle suggests a relatively early date. The stopper may be a replacement for the original but dates from before 1895, when both the stopper and the bottle entered the Museum.