Avery Brundage Collection
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Photo: NoeHill in San Francisco
The Avery Brundage Collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco stands as one of the most significant repositories of Chinese decorative art outside of China. Beginning in 1959, Chicago industrialist Avery Brundage donated more than 7,700 Asian art objects to the City of San Francisco, forming the foundation of a museum with particular strengths in ritual bronzes, jade carvings, Buddhist sculpture, and decorative ceramics. The museum's snuff bottle holdings extend beyond the Brundage gift, enriched over the decades by the generosity of additional collectors whose donations have broadened the range of materials, periods, and styles on offer. Together, these assembled works showcase the full scope of Qing dynasty craftsmanship, where artists working in glass, jade, agate, porcelain, and ivory compressed extraordinary technical virtuosity into objects small enough to rest in a palm of your hand.
Spanning the full range of materials and decorative traditions that defined imperial and literati taste from the seventeenth century onward, the AAM's snuff bottles offer collectors and scholars an unusually rich survey of the form's evolution
Additional resources
From the collection
Embellished lacquer
China, 1800–1900. Snuff bottle. Lacquer with soapstone, pearl and shell inlay. Transfer from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Bequest of Isabella M. Cowell. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: B81M8.
Glass imitating aquamarine
China, approx. 1850–1900, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Snuff bottle imitating aquamarine. Bottle: glass; stopper: rose quartz. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Vincent Fausone, Jr. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 2006.28.
Inside-painted with fish
8:57 AMClaude responded: China, April 2005.China, April 2005. Snuff bottle. Su Fengyu (Chinese, b. 1960). Bottle: crystal with ink; stopper: jadeite. Gift of Ted H. Chiao. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 2005.67.a-.b.
Nephrite in the shape of a melon with a butterfly
China, approx. 1800–1900, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Snuff bottle in the shape of a melon with a butterfly. Nephrite. The Avery Brundage Collection. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: B72M49.
Mossy agate
China, approx. 1800–1900, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Flattened oval snuff bottle. Agate. Gift of the Asian Art Museum Foundation from the Collection of Ransom Cook. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 1989.32.5.
Aventurine glass
China, approx. 1800–1900, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Snuff bottle. Glass. Gift of the Asian Art Museum Foundation from the Collection of Ransom Cook. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 1989.32.15.
Glass decorated with katydid and grapes
China, 1800–1900, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Snuff bottle decorated with katydid and grapes. Glass. The Avery Brundage Collection. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: B72M21.a-.b.
Cloisonné enamel
China, prob. 1800–1911, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Snuff bottle. Cloisonne enamel. Gift of Jon R. Jost. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 1993.14.a-.b.
Imperial yellow glass molded with dragons
China, 1736–1795, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Reign of the Qianlong emperor (1736–1795). Snuff bottle molded with dragons. Glass. Gift of Margaret Polak. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 2006.20.
Basalt
China, approx. 1875–1900, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Snuff bottle. Basalt. Gift of Margaret Polak. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 2006.26.
Yellow jade of slender baluster form
China, approx. 1750–1850, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Snuff bottle of slender baluster form. Yellow jade. Gift of Margaret Polak. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 2007.52.a-.b.
Cameo agate with five bats and gourd
China, approx. 1750–1800, Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Snuff bottle with five bats. Shadow agate. Gift of the Asian Art Museum Foundation from the Collection of Ransom Cook. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 1989.32.11.
Inside-painted with lotus, kingfisher, and calligraphy of a poem by Meng Haoran
9:51 AMClaude responded: China, 1977.China, 1977. Snuff bottle painted inside with lotus, kingfisher, and calligraphy of a poem by Meng Haoran (active 713–741). Wang Guanyu (Chinese). Glass with ink. Gift of Margaret Polak. © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Object number: 2007.54.a-.b.
The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society
2 Hamill Road, Suite 353
Baltimore, MD 21210 USA
410-467-9400
