Owning and traveling with a perfume-sized, ornate bottle containing a powder you intend to inhale seems to most modern citizens as a foreign and probably illegal concept. In 18th and 19th century China, however, this practice was considered a social norm.
On Wednesday, March 26 in Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Profs. Aida Yuen Wong (FA) and Yu Feng (GRALL) presented in-depth lectures on Chinese snuff bottles, spotlighting Brandeis' own collection in the University Archives.
The event was cosponsored by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for the Humanities, Special Collections in the Brandeis Library and the Rose Art Museum.
The event was part of a Close Looking Series that occurs three times a semester and takes an in-depth look at some of the Universities' most treasured collections from the library's Special Collections and the Rose Art Museum.
Chinese snuff bottles are small, vessel-like bottles made to hold powdered tobacco. They were used by the Chinese to inhale tobacco during the Qing dynasty when smoking tobacco became illegal.
"[Snuff bottles were] all the rage in China during the last imperial dynasty, especially in the 18th and 19th century," Wong said. Snuff bottles became increasingly popular because snuff was thought to cure a variety of illnesses.
A similar fever swept over Europe with the use of the snuffbox. It served the same purpose as the Chinese snuff bottle of holding powdered tobacco.
"In Europe it was fashionable to put their snuff in a canister or small box, but it was not so in China. Chinese preferred little bottles with a smaller ration and bottles with a sealable cap that would prevent drying up too quickly, or caking up too quickly," Wong said.
The Chinese snuff bottle collection was originally owned by Jack and Therese G. Katz. They donated it to Brandeis in 1964. The collection contains around 50 bottles.
Snuff bottles are made of many different materials such as glass, porcelain, wood, ivory, jade and ceramic. The bottle contains a tiny spoon inside for inhaling the snuff. They are typically decorated with intricate paintings or Chinese calligraphy. Highly detailed and ornate snuff bottles were a sign of wealth and status.
"They have been compared to luxury watches today. They are objects that not only have a function but also can be carried around with pride," Wong said.
The bottles are not complete without an intricately carved stand. "The idea of bracing an object on a stand immediately transforms it into a work of art, just like putting a frame around a picture," Wong said.
Snuff bottles were intentionally constructed to fit in the palm of a hand. "In the West there is a tendency to dismiss small objects as trinkets. Not so in China. Very fine works of arts can come in small and dainty sizes, encouraging playful handling. The experience for touch rather than a purely optic experience is important for Chinese art," Wong said.
Snuff bottles crucially do not have a distinct back or front because all sides are equally important. One side can portray an ornate painting and the other can contain a poem in ancient Chinese calligraphy. The sides and tops of bottles can also be critical to the overall masterpiece.
Many snuff bottles are symbolic and provide insight into Chinese culture. For example, one of the snuff bottles in the Brandeis collection is made of coral, a rare material to be used for a snuff bottle. Coral has profusions that look like shadows of trees that were said to last forever, therefore symbolizing longevity.
In addition to their symbolism, many different stylistic techniques classify each bottle. One common carving style is called "Suzhou style," named after the Chinese city of Suzhou. "We imagine that people from Suzhou demanded high quality works. Because jade is as hard as steel, the difficulty of carving into jade makes the snuff bottles intrinsically valuable," said Wong.
Feng focused his presentation on the significance of Chinese snuff bottle calligraphy. The text includes poems or parallel phrases, and can also provide information about the date and place of creation, the name of the artist or the name of the original recipient.
"The text is art, Chinese calligraphy. They're beautiful and at the same time we can get very important information from those texts. We can trace history," said Feng.
Some of the most skilled craftsmen of these bottles practiced interior painting. Many texts and ornate paintings were painted from the inside of the bottle, demonstrating a remarkably high skill level.
Some scholars believe that this became popular during the period of the Jiaqing Emperor (1796 to 1820) and others believe that it became popular during the period of the Guangxu Emperor (1875 to 1908).
Elaborate calligraphy is painted on the interior of the bottles to prevent the ink from wearing away since bottles were intended for touching. "Chinese calligraphy inside bottles was a really, really difficult skill," Feng said
Kexin Jin M.A.T.'14 explained that her favorite piece from the collection is the bottle with the calligraphy on the inside. "The writing style is very beautiful, I'm from China and I didn't know that Brandeis had this collection," Jin said.
According to Feng, Ma Shaoxuan was arguably considered the greatest master of inside bottle painting. He was a native to Beijing and his works can be divided into three time periods of different subjects. His early works range from photo-like portraits to landscaping of flowers and birds.
It is not uncommon for collectors to have hundreds of different bottles. The Katz collection has 50 bottles. The process of making a snuff bottle was extremely time-consuming, making bottles highly desired by some collectors in the modern day. "The golden age of collecting snuff bottles was in the 1960s and '70s when supply was in abundance and then prices were incredibly cheap compared to today's standards," Wong said.
Today, collectors choose objects that have unique qualities or special value. Styles that belonged to the imperial family are especially treasured and drive the prices to impossible heights.
Although, the exact value of Brandeis' collection is unknown, Feng speculated that in the past the masterpieces of Shaoxuan have gone for $60,000 each. Most of his pieces are rare to China and located in Europe and the U.S.
The Katz collection represents a diversity of styles and symbolism used to make Chinese snuff bottles. Interior paintings, calligraphy, coral bottles, intricate scenery and ornate symbolism are only some of the snuff bottles that make up this prized collection.
These small bottles have a powerful influence in Chinese culture. Wong described the significance of each bottle, saying, "snuff bottles are miniaturist art. There is a Chinese phrase about the sensibility behind miniatures which means perceiving grandness through smallness."
Gillian Boulay M.A.'15, who studies in the Chinese program, she said "I was really surprised that we have this collection. I think it'd be really great if more students knew about it."