V&A Collection
Victoria & Albert Museum
Photo: Volatile; Cover photo: V&A Museum
The V&A's Asia collection numbers more than 160,000 objects, one of the largest in existence, with one of the world's most comprehensive collections of Chinese art. The snuff bottle holdings form a distinctive part of this broader strength, enriched over more than a century by major bequests from private collectors. Important donations during the course of the twentieth century, including from the Salting, Eumorfopoulos, Hildburgh, Alexander, and Le Blond collections, coupled with determined collecting by individual curators, led to major strengths across the East Asian holdings. The snuff bottle collection was documented in a landmark 1992 publication authored by Helen White, making it one of the few institutional holdings to be catalogued in a dedicated volume.
Enriched by some of the most significant private bequests in British collecting history and catalogued in a dedicated 1992 publication, the V&A's snuff bottle holdings sit within one of the world's great repositories of Chinese art.
Additional resources
From the collection
Glass imitating aventurine in hill form
China, 1750–1850, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Cast glass imitating aventurine, modelled in the form of a hill; matching stopper. Shoichiro Oki Gift. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Accession number: FE.459:1, 2-2007.
Ivory in double gourd form with frog design in Japanese style
China, 1800–1900, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Ivory of double gourd form, carved with a frog design in Japanese style; matching stopper. Shoichiro Oki Gift. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Accession number: FE.478:1, 2-2007.
Enamelled glass with figures in a landscape
China (Beijing, Palace Workshops), 1736–1795, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period. Snuff bottle. Opaque white glass of flattened octagonal form, painted in polychrome enamels with two figures walking in a landscape with a building, pine trees, and mountains on one side and a figure standing by pine trees with a building on the other; faceted sides with formal rosettes in red on blue; coral stopper set in metal. Salting Bequest. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Accession number: C.1583&A-1910.
Porcelain with catfish in waves and moon
China, 1850–1900, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Porcelain of elongated ovoid form, painted in red with white enamel wave crests, depicting catfish in waves and the moon among clouds; coral-coloured stopper. Given by Mrs. Julia C. Gulland. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Accession number: 687&STOPP-1907.
Amethyst in the form of two aubergines
China, 1840–1895, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Amethyst carved in the form of two aubergines. Salting Bequest. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Accession number: C.1878-1910.
Porcelain in the form of a lioness with cub and ball
China, 1796–1860, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Porcelain modelled in the form of a lioness clutching a cub and a ball, painted in blue, green, black, brown, and pink with a red-glazed base; porcelain stopper with coral finial. Salting Bequest. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Accession number: C.1705&STOPP-1910.
Imperial red overlay on white glass with archaic scrolls
China, 1723–1820, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Opaque white glass of elongated flattened pear form with red glass overlay carved in relief with formal archaic scrolls and circular motifs within a key pattern border; jadeite and coral stopper; original case. Salting Bequest. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Accession number: C.1641&A-1910.
Porcelain with five-clawed dragon chasing a pearl
China, 1821–1900, Qing dynasty. Snuff bottle. Porcelain of flattened flask form, painted in green, red, yellow, and black with gilding, depicting a five-clawed dragon chasing a pearl amid flames on each side; ivory stopper. Marie Dumergue Bequest. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Accession number: C.96&A-1912.
The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society
2 Hamill Road, Suite 353
Baltimore, MD 21210 USA
410-467-9400
