Dig It - 7/7/22
Well Fellow Seekers, today we are going to look at Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Prospector has been collecting them for years, my Mammy collected them and my Grand Mammy too, that makes me a Third Generation Snuff Bottle Collecting, Prospecting Fool.
Tobacco “the Sot-weed” is a New World plant and was introduced into China by Portuguese and Dutch Missionaries and traders sometime in the 17th Century. Tobacco in its powder form, “Snuff,” was considered medicinal, lord knows how they came to that conclusion. I don’t know if any of you Seekers have ever tried snuff, but it tends to make me dizzy and stupefied or besot. Back to the subject, just as the Europeans were arriving in China, a new Dynasty, the Ching was establishing its power over China. The Ching or Manchu were not Han or Traditional Chinese, but “Barbarians” from the northwest. Tobacco like the Manchu took hold of China and at that time, snuff was its most popular form. To carry the snuff the Chinese invented these exquisite flasks or bottles to hold the precious substance. They made snuff bottles out of every conceivable material. Those made from the most precious materials were used as high-status gifts and bribes for favors amongst the Elite. The bottles below were all made from hard stones, some with walls carved so thin they are transparent, and you can see right through them. They were carved between 1700 and 1850. Some of them were made for the Imperial Court.
From Left to right we have Jasper, Conglomerate or Pudding Stone, Jade, Lapis lazuli, Rutilated Quartz, Nephrite Jade, Jasper, Agate, Agate, and Agate.
As you can see from the photo these bottles are magical and maybe medicinal in the sense that they can lift your spirit and show the beauty and creative genius of which man is capable.
Seek Out!