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 Chinese
Snuff Bottles |
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Chinese Snuff Bottles
Dipping snuff is a habit people don't indulge in any more. But the
traditional Chinese folk art of painting the inside of snuff bottles
is alive and well at your friendly Beijing curio shop. The bottle
is carved on the outside and painted on the inside, and would make
a lovely addition to your collection.
Snuff made its way via the old Silk Road. As early as 1542, the Italian
missionary Matteo Ricci presented snuff bottles to the Emperor of
Ming Dynasty. By the time Qianlong came to power during the Qing Dynasty,
dipping the spice-powered tobacco had become popular at court and
among society's nobles. So that China's lords ladies could dip their
snuff in style, artisans were engaged to decorate the bottles. Soon
snuff bottle decorators were competing with each other.
Out of this chance encounter snuff bottle painting was born. The monk
was inspired by what he had seen to devise a way to do on purpose
what the petty official had done by accident. Using a slender piece
of bamboo curved at the head and soaked with ink, the monk spend hours
painting scenes inside the bottles. Perhaps this is true, and perhaps
not, but snuff bottle painting began. It certainly caught the fancy
of the era's rich and famous, and fitted right into their lifestyles.
It is further reported that painting the inside of snuff bottles became
popular in Beijing somewhat later, during the reign of Emperor Jiaqing
(1792-1820) of the Qing Dynasty. The bottles were transparent or translucent,
so that the interior designs were clearly visible. Visitor to Beijing
in those days marveled at the great skill with which the painters
could capture even the smallest details of a portrait or landscape.
A snuff bottle is generally small enough to be held in the palm of
the hand, so decorations are invariably small. As a practiced in China,
snuff bottle painting takes at least three complementary skills: glassware
molding, painting and calligraphy. The earliest bottles used had smooth
inner walls, which meant the paint easily flaked and fell off. For
the reason, early designs were simple, using only a few basic colours.
Later artisans discovered techniques to rough up the inner surface
so that the ink would stick, using iron fillings and emery boards.
The result was frosted, cream-colored glass that allowed painters
to create flowers, historical and contemporary figures, and ornate
inscriptions.
At present there are two international associations of snuff bottle
collectors, one in the United States and the other in England. Both
publish journals and hold annual conferences. China's best-known snuff
bottle carvers and painters are regularly invited to participant in
the yearly proceedings.
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