Object details
Object number
U18e69.a-b
Creator(s)
Chinese
Title
Snuff Bottle
Date
1796-1820
Medium
Porcelain, glass, and silver
Provenance
Possibly purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner in Peking (Beijing), 26 September 1883.
Dimensions
8.3 x 3.8 x 2.5 cm (3 1/4 x 1 1/2 x 1 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.This reticulated porcelain bottle is decorated with a dragon on one side and a phoenix among clouds on the other. It may be an Imperial commission made in the 1800s, around 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. 3. (as Chinese, dated late 18th century)
Yasuko Horioka et al. Oriental and Islamic Art: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1975), pp. 30-32, no. 10c.
Alan Chong and Noriko Murai. Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2009), pp. 446-47, fig. 5. (as Jiaqing period (1796-1820))
Rights and reproductions
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