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Another recent purchase. Any opinions regarding age, quality, origin would be most welcome. under loupe X 60 it does show some signs of age. I believe it to be made of white glass. One can pick out the polishing marks on the shoulder of the bottle under magnification. Some gilding loss. Stopper and spoon are complete. Spoon is wood I think and gilded. Unusual Yin & Yang design on the stopper.

It is hard to tell from here, but it appears to be painted on the outside of the bottle. This sort of decoration wouldn't stand up for long if it were used as a snuff bottle. The paint would wear off. Was it used? Is there any snuff residue inside?

The painting quality looks rather slap dash and doesn't hold a candle to the masters of the inside painted technique. I suspect it is pretty new, more of a souvenir piece.

We purchased 3 snuff bottles last year. All were glass - which is unusual since I prefer carved hard-stone snuff bottles. See below.

Cheers,
Stan

Hi Stan, thanks for your comments. From what I have read glass snuff bottles with over enamel were quite sought after because the technique was so difficult as temperature control was an issue though no doubt modern firing kilns would have that problem sorted. I appreciate some inside painted snuff bottles are fantastic not only because of the challenge of painting in reverse on the interior of the bottle but also their composition is sometimes amazing. I do however believe this was partly achieved through the medium they used which was water colour paint which allows for far finer detailing than enameling. The concern I have with my bottle is the pink blue and black around the collar, it just reminds me of some post 1930s or 1950s cheap porcelain coming out of Macao badly imitating the qianlong famille rose palette.

It helps to know what you have. I assumed it was just a poorly painted glass snuff bottle. Now that you've let the secret out, I can help and do some research. Below are examples of a couple enamel over glass snuff bottles from the National Palace Museum, Taipei. This will give you an idea of what can be accomplished with this technique.

Cheers,
Stan

Hi Stan,

Thanks for your post again. those examples are pretty impressive and certainly show my bottle up to be what it is, a poor imitation of a qianlong piece. Thanks again

Regards

Gerry

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