Studio: international art (8.1896)

Chinese Snuff Bottles

object, and at his sale many
of them were acquired for the
British Museum. As his
collections showed, snuff
bottles are used all over the
world, and in such varying
climates as Italy, Iceland,
Madagascar, Kaffirland, and
Morocco. The editor of
The Studio is the fortunate
possessor of a volume of
facsimiles in colour executed
for Mr. Bragge of a large
number of his bottles.

I will merely say this, that
snuff taking is not indulged in
to any extent by the Chinese,
as is opium, for instance. It
figs. 2 and 3.—mocha sToxE is rather an elegant luxury, a

fashion amongst the wealthier

in Japan there are classes ol objects which have classes, who wear a snuff bottle as an ornament and
as yet failed to attract the attention of more than a vie with one another as to who shall have the more
very limited body of collectors, and from which uncommon one. As the Chinese have no pocket
instruction, pleasure, and profit may certainly be the bottle is either carried ostentatiously in the
derived, and that at no considerable cost hand, wrapped in a handkerchief, or, more usually,

The present paper will deal with one of such— in a silk or satin purse, made like our old-fashioned
viz., Chinese snuff bottles. These tiny bibelots long ring purses, with a slit in the middle. The
have many recommendations : they are typical of bottle goes into one end of this and the cash into
their makers; they have age; they show great the other, and it is usually tucked through the
variety of shape, substance, and ornamentation ; girdle, the ends hanging down. Snuff is taken out
they are small in compass; they are not too plenti- of the bottle with the spoon attached to the stopper,
ful; there are as yet but few collectors of them, it is then placed in the palm of the hand and
and consequently they are not imitated ; and they thence rubbed into the nostrils and over the
are not dear. Their variety is such that a collec- lip. Upon an introduction taking place snuff
tion of five hundred might be made, each with bottles are either exchanged, or if there be only
some different merit to
recommend it; but a col-
lection of a fourth of that
number or less may still be
a representative one, and
be within the means of
most collectors.

I do not propose in the
following notes to deal
with the interest of these
bottles from the point of
view of their utility or
their connection with a
habit which has been in-
dulged in all over the globe.
One of the first persons
who collected them, Mr.
Bragge, however, bought
many hundreds with this fig. 4.—mocha stone fig. 5.—quartz penetrated with tourmaline

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