Snuff Bottles

Chinese hand-painted glass snuff bottle craft originated in the Qing Dynasty and has a history of two hundred years. It was first designed as a fancy container carrying remedy for common illnesses like cold, headache and stomach disorder. With the exquisite craftsmanship, using and collecting the rarest and finest snuff bottles has gradually become the trend of Chinese upper class and nobles.

“Inside painted” snuff bottles is the product from that trend, which has pictures and often calligraphy painted on the inside surface of the glass bottle. These delightful scenes are only an inch or two high and are painted while manipulating the brush through the neck of the bottle may be only a quarter-inch across, and also painted in reverse.

Usually, a skilled artist may complete a simple bottle in a week while something special may take a month or more and that the best craftsmen will produce only a few bottles in a year.