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Hi.
I have two snuff porcelain snuff bottles.
I'd like to know if Chinese or Japanese
And what it says on the bottom (one is not very clear).
Any idea how old they are?
Many thanks.

The decoration on these snuff bottles is of poor quality - slapdash comes to mind. Looking at the top bottle, the two characters look like they read left to right Qianlong. Given my Chinese language skills (none), I ask that another member confirm this. If this bottle were old, the characters should read right to left (I believe). The second bottle has a reign mark stamped on the bottom. The quality of the stamp is poor and covered with crud and I can't make it out. Likely it is meant to be Qianlong also. Both look to be bogus marks.

Given the quality of the decoration and the reign marks, my guess would be that these are quite new.

My level of expertise in snuff bottles is only middling and I hope we can get a second opinion from our members. One thing I will say is that I would not purchase your snuff bottles. Below is one of our porcelain snuff bottles that probably isn't old but you'll notice that the workmanship is much better.

Cheers,
Stan

Thank you. Yes, your example is of much higher quality and more refined.

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