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Lady Lever Art Gallery

National Museums of Liverpool

Public collection

Photo: National Museums of Liverpool

The Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight on the Wirral was founded by industrialist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulume, and opened in 1922 as a tribute to his late wife Elizabeth Hulme, Lady Lever, and a showcase for his personal collection. The Chinese holdings number around 1,000 works, centered primarily on 17th and 18th century porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods, with smaller groupings of reverse paintings on glass, cloisonne, jade and hardstones, and snuff bottles. Displayed in two interlinked Chinese Rooms, the snuff bottles sit within one of the finest institutional Chinese collections in Europe.

Location

Port Sunlight Village

Wirral CH62 5EQ

United Kingdom

IMPORTANT dates

Opened 1922

Part of one of the finest Chinese collections in Europe, the Lady Lever's snuff bottles are displayed within a purpose-built gallery that remains one of the most ambitious expressions of a private collector's vision in the United Kingdom.