Object details
Object number
U18e65.a-b
Creator(s)
Chinese
Title
Snuff Bottle
Date
1796-1820
Medium
Molded, carved, and enameled porcelain
Provenance
Possibly purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner in Peking [Beijing] China, 26 September 1883.
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed in red (bottom): 嘉慶年制 Jiaqing nian zhi [made during the reign of Jiaqing Emperor]
Dimensions
8.5 x 6.4 x 2.8 cm (3 3/8 x 2 1/2 x 1 1/8 in.)
Commentary
This bottle was created to hold snuff—a flavored powdered tobacco inhaled through the nose. Snuff—introduced to China by European missionaries and merchants—was widely used in the 1800s. Made from a variety of materials and sometimes elaborately decorated, Chinese snuff bottles have an airtight stopper to protect against humidity and a small scoop for removing the tobacco.A man on horseback pursues another on a riverbank, while a man in yellow robes watches the scene from a boat. This bottle is inscribed on its base and may have been made at the end of the Jiaqing Emperor’s reign (1796-1820). Isabella Stewart Gardner may have purchased it on her travels in China in 1883.
Gallery
Little Salon
Bibliography
Yasuko Horioka. "Chinese Snuff Bottles." Fenway Court (1971), pp. 28-30, fig. 2. (as Chinese, Chai-ch'ing period (1796-1820))Yasuko Horioka et al. Oriental and Islamic Art: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1975), 30-32, no. 10b.Alan Chong and Noriko Murai. Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2009), pp. 206, 446-47, fig. 4.
Rights and reproductions
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