
Röhsska Museum Collection
Röhsska Museum

Cover photo: Carl Ander
The Röhsska Museum's Chinese collection originates in the early 1900s, when the museum commissioned an expedition to China to acquire objects, led by the Swedish adventurer and botanist Thorild Wulff. The Chinese collection consists of around 1,400 artifacts, and is one of the oldest museum collections in Europe, reflecting the increased interest in Chinese history and culture in the early twentieth century. Among its holdings is a representative selection of Chinese snuff bottles, displayed as part of a permanent East Asian collection that places them within the broader context of Chinese decorative craft and its influence on Nordic design traditions.
Part of one of Europe's oldest Chinese collections, assembled through a dedicated acquisition expedition in the early twentieth century, the Röhsska's snuff bottles are displayed in a museum whose own design history is inseparable from the East Asian objects that have informed it since its founding.
Additional resources
From the collection

Porcelain with white decor on black ground
China, 1820–1830, Qing dynasty, Daoguang period. Snuff bottle. Porcelain with white decoration on black ground. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1439-1915.

Blue and white porcelain with dragon
China, 1722–1736, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period. Snuff bottle. Porcelain with blue decoration depicting a dragon. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1461-1915.

Quartz with tourmaline inclusions
China. Snuff bottle. Quartz with enclosed tourmaline inclusions; coral and brass stopper. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1507-1915.

Mottled grey and green jade
China. Snuff bottle. Mottled grey and green jade; brass and jade stopper. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1506-1915.

Inside-painted agate with goldfish and pavilion
China. Snuff bottle. Agate, inside-painted with goldfish and a pavilion by Ye Zhongsan; tourmaline stopper. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1511-1915.

Porcelain with scrolling dragon
China. Snuff bottle. Porcelain of pillar form with red-brown glaze, decorated in black and yellow-brown with a scrolling dragon. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1510-1915.

Blue and white porcelain with phoenix
China. Snuff bottle. Porcelain with blue decoration depicting a phoenix and ruyi pattern at the neck; coral stopper. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1498-1915.

Inside-painted glass with ducks and lotus
China. Snuff bottle. Glass, inside-painted with ducks beneath lotus flowers. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1416-1915.

Ruby-red overlay glass
China. Snuff bottle. Glass with ruby-red overlay; silver stopper with green stone. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1491-1915.

Alabaster of spade form
China. Snuff bottle. Alabaster of spade form; stopper of coral, blue glass, and bone. Gift from Hjalmar Wijk. © Röhsska Museum. Accession number: RKM 1489-1915.

