Chinese Chinese SnuffBottles Lot - Butterflies 3

Snuff Bottle:

- Chinese Porcelain painted Snuff Bottles.
- Tobacco arrived in China with European traders (in the seventeenth century).
- At that time tobacco was not smoked, but was used as pulverised tobacco leaves. It served to clear the airway.
- The first Chinese porcelain snuff bottles appear in China in the seventeenth century under the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong.
- China Snuff-boxes are different from the European snuff-boxes. The chinese snuff-boxes serve to protect the tobacco from humidity. Their use was only for the elite.
- In China the Snuff bottles quickly became very famous, and was one of the most notable items.