Rewi Alley Collection
Canterbury Museum
Photo: MyGuide Christchurch
The Rewi Alley Collection at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch is among the most distinctive repositories of Chinese art in the Southern Hemisphere, assembled not through institutional acquisition but through the personal connections of a New Zealand-born humanitarian living in China. Alley gifted objects from 1932 until his death in 1987 as a way to promote understanding of Chinese culture in New Zealand. Small and durable, snuff bottles were ideally suited to the collection's unconventional supply chain. Alley added to the museum's holdings from the 1930s until the 1970s, at times dispatching bottles with travelling companions when export licenses were not available. The bottles span jade, ceramic, ivory, lacquer, and glass, gathered across northern China and along the old Silk Road.
Perhaps the only major snuff bottle collection in the world assembled bottle by bottle through acts of personal diplomacy, the Rewi Alley Collection is as much a record of a remarkable life as it is a survey of the form.
Additional resources
From the collection
Amethyst with horse
China. Snuff bottle. Amethyst carved with a horse; green jade stopper. Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 2021.58.6.
Red carnelian snuff bottle
China. Snuff bottle. Red carnelian; stopper of light pink stone with green band. Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 2021.58.10.
Chalcedony with figures in relief
China. Snuff bottle. Light orange chalcedony carved with figures in relief; green stopper with metal rim. Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 2021.58.8.
Silhouette agate with fisherman
China. Snuff bottle. Silhouette agate with yellow-gold overlay depicting a figure in a boat fishing; pale green stopper in silver collar. Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 1957.2.11.
Imitation realgar glass in double gourd form
China. Snuff bottle. Red and yellow-gold marbled glass imitating realgar, in double gourd form, inscribed with two Chinese characters 大古; peach-orange stopper. Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 1957.122.5.
Glazed ceramic in the form of a figure
China. Snuff bottle. Glazed ceramic modelled as a standing figure in polychrome robes. Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 1957.58.35.
Glazed ceramic with botanical pattern
China. Snuff bottle. Glazed ceramic decorated with a continuous botanical pattern in pale green, pink, yellow, and blue; pink glass stopper with white spoon. Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 1957.58.34.
Pale green jade with taotie
China. Snuff bottle. Pale green jade with taotie designs carved on the short sides; pink stopper with green collar. Purchased by Rewi Alley in the Peking Market. Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 1957.180.11.
Rose pink crackle-glazed ceramic
China (Hubei province). Snuff bottle. Rose pink crackle-glazed ceramic with beaded rim; white stopper with red-brown collar. Rewi Alley Collection, Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. © Canterbury Museum. Accession number: 19XX.1.1166.
The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society
2 Hamill Road, Suite 353
Baltimore, MD 21210 USA
410-467-9400
