Snuff Bottle and Stopper, Qianlong Period (1736-1795)
Chinese
Translucent "lotus root powder" (oufen) glass overlaid with red glass relief decoration; white and green jade and red glass stopper with ivory spoon
3 1/8 x 1 5/8 inches (8 x 4.1 cm)
Gift of Major General and Mrs. William Crozier, 1944
1944-20-604
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In the eighteenth century, Chinese emperors and other elites began collecting snuff bottles, which they valued both as precious objects and as containers for powdered tobacco (snuff). They first used cylindrical medicine bottles to hold this new "medicine"—introduced from Japan in the late-seventeenth century—and then experimented with new bottle shapes and added stoppers with ivory spoons attached. The Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1736–1795) was particularly fond of these miniature containers, favoring the carved glass bottles made in the Imperial Glassworks that his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, had established in 1696. With the encouragement of the Qianlong ruler, snuff bottle production reached new aesthetic and technological heights, and their popularity continued through the late nineteenth century.

The bottle shown here, with its white-flecked glass background (called "lotus root powder" in Chinese) and ruby-red glass overlay, exemplifies the glass overlay wares made at the Imperial Glassworks during the early eighteenth century. It was probably intended as a gift for an official: the high-relief carving of herons in a lotus pond symbolizes purity and the incorruptible statesman. The 137 snuff bottles on view encompass many decorative designs, including floral, figural, and landscape motifs, auspicious symbols, and poetry. Made from glass, porcelain, gourds, seeds, semiprecious stones, and hard stones, these bottles represent the versatility and expertise of the artisans who produced them and show the richness of the Museum's holdings.

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