The George Crofts Collection
Royal Ontario Museum
Royal Ontario Museum
The George Crofts Collection at the Royal Ontario Museum grew out of one of the more improbable partnerships in the history of North American museum collecting. George Crofts (1871–1925), an Anglo-Irish merchant who had built a fortune in the Tianjin fur trade, walked into the newly opened ROM in 1918 after recognizing one of his own former shipments on a museum postcard. His meeting with founding director Charles Trick Currelly produced an agreement under which the cash-strapped museum paid little more than shipping and costs, and Crofts waived his commission. Between 1918 and 1925 more than 8,000 Chinese objects arrived in Toronto through him, including snuff bottles, glass, palace furniture, and Tang ceramics, and for those years Crofts was the museum's sole source of Chinese art. The snuff bottles entered the ROM as part of this larger flow, sourced directly from the Tianjin and Beijing markets before most Western collectors had access to them. The museum's holdings were later supplemented by gifts from Toronto donors including Dorothy Hoover and Violet Stewart.
Acquired directly from the North China markets between 1918 and 1925 through a dealer who charged the museum almost nothing, the Crofts snuff bottles reached Toronto a generation before institutional collecting of the form became fashionable.
Additional resources
Snuff bottles are not currently on view in gallery.
From the collection
Carved glass with archaic confronting dragons
China, mid 18th–19th century, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Glass, mould-blown and cold-cut with archaic confronting dragons; coral stopper. The George Crofts Collection. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 922.20.549.
Jade with inscriptions, bamboo, and leaf spray
China, 18th century, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Grey jade of flattened rectangular form with four raised framed panels, carved in intaglio with inscriptions on the main sides, bamboo on one face and a leaf spray with rocks on the other; coral bead stopper set in metal with ivory spoon. The George Crofts Collection. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 922.20.464.
Double overlay glass with magpies and prunus on pink ground
China, 19th century, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Pink glass with double overlay carved with magpies and prunus. The George Crofts Collection. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 922.20.540.
Inside-painted glass with ba-po and poem, signed Ma Shaoxuan
China, circa 1903, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Mould-blown glass, inside-painted with two fan paintings depicting a landscape and a bird on a branch alongside calligraphic panels simulating ink rubbings on one side, and a poem by Ma Shaoxuan on the other; signed Ma Shaoxuan and dated 1903. Gift of Miss Violet Stewart. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 975.206.3.
Bamboo carved with bats, shou symbol, and ruyi border
China, 1750–1900, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Bamboo carved with stylized bats flanking a shou symbol within a ruyi border; matching stopper. Gift of Mrs. Dorothy Hoover. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 983.135.38.
Cinnabar lacquer with butterflies on black lacquer ground
China, mid 18th–19th century, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Cinnabar lacquer carved with butterflies on a black lacquer ground. Bequest of Mrs. Dorothy P. Munro. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 978.238.9.
Reticulated white porcelain with Buddhist lions and brocade balls
China, late 18th–early 19th century, Qing dynasty, Jiaqing period. Snuff bottle. White porcelain moulded in reticulated form with Buddhist lions and brocade balls; glass and metal stopper. Bequest of Mrs. Dorothy P. Munro. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 978.238.4.
Inside-painted tourmalinated rock crystal with goldfish, signed Ye Zhongsan
China, early 20th century, Republic period. Snuff bottle. Tourmalinated rock crystal, inside-painted with goldfish by Ye Zhongsan. Bequest of Mrs. Dorothy P. Munro. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 978.238.10.
Composite glass imitating realgar
China, 19th century, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Composite glass with mottled markings imitating realgar. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 920X86.15.
Red overlay on snowflake glass with dragon pursuing flaming pearl and tiger in landscape
China, circa 1750–1800, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Snowflake glass of moon flask form with red overlay carved with a figure on a rocky base holding aloft a flaming pearl pursued by a dragon on one side, and a tiger in a rocky landscape with pine tree on the other; jade stopper with bone spoon. Gift of Mr. J.W. Cochrane through the Ontario Heritage Foundation. © Royal Ontario Museum. Object number: 989.23.46.
The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society
2 Hamill Road, Suite 353
Baltimore, MD 21210 USA
410-467-9400
