Snuff is powdered tobacco usually mixed with herbs and spices designed to be sniffed upwards through the nostrils. It has long been viewed a more ‘gentlemanly’ practice than actually smoking the tobacco. Snuff originated in America and became immensely popular in 17th century Europe. Like scent, special bottles were popularised to contain snuff, being usually ornate and often unique and ultimately one of today’s most popular collectibles. Designed to carry in the pocket, most bottles are less than 3 inches long and an inch or two wide.
Many of the most beautiful and valuable snuff bottles were made in China and feature amongst eBay’s highest priced specimens. Most Chinese snuff bottles resemble small vases with tiny stoppers and were frequently made from porcelain, ivory, horn, glass or bronze, and overlaid with delicate hand painting or encrusted with precious stones. The best were hand carved from porcelain and gemstones, or carved and hand hollowed from glass and worth many times more than their modern day glass blown counterparts.
There’s a good following for modern snuff bottles so don’t turn a blind eye to what’s available from craftworkers and glass makers. You’ll find modern snuff bottles will sell well outside their area of origin but be careful not to confuse old with new in your listings. Some enthusiasts collect snuff bottles regardless of age; others want antique bottles aged one hundred years or more.
Although the majority of quality snuff bottles were and still are made in China, some better designs also came from Japan, usually of carved ivory or hand applied lacquer.
The Chinese developed a technique of ‘inside painting’ their snuff bottles to prevent outside decorations being chipped or discoloured when knocked or subject to strong light or heat. Paint was applied using matchstick shaped bamboo sticks with a hooked end to reach inside the bottle, a painstaking process that took weeks or months, sometimes years.
The best of Chinese and Japanese creations are rare and very expensive especially bearing the artist’s signature, as you’ll see from the following recent eBay results:
* Two Antique Enamelled Oriental Snuff Bottles fetched $10,000. These were hand painted types and went at Live Auction.
* A snuff bottle decorated enamel on copper (Japanese I think) went for $4750.00, also at Live Auction. What surprised me here was the surprising lack of detail given about the bottle but the pictures were great and no doubt lifted an otherwise very poor listing.
* Two 19th century jade snuff bottles made in China fetched $4250.00 and $2,100.00 respectively.
Numerous other Chinese 18th and 19th century bottles fetched hundreds of dollars apiece and, in a long list of Oriental snuff bottles, just one failed to reach its reserve and remained unsold.
Other Things to Know About Snuff Bottles
* Snuff bottles rarely go unsold on eBay and often fetch silly-high prices. They really are the kind of thing you can buy, at almost any price high or low, add your mark up and get what you ask, and maybe a whole lot more. Remember that, if two people bid to a specific price at local auction you’re bound to find one more person in this great big world willing to pay just a little bit extra for the item, maybe a great deal more.
* The most expensive snuff bottles are made from porcelain from the late 1600s to mid-1700s.
* The smaller the hole in the top of the bottle, generally speaking the better the quality.
* Another major sign of quality is the size of the interior, bigger generally being more expensive than smaller hollows.
* ‘Overlay’ is a description applied to many valuable bottles and indicates another colour, material or design has been applied over the basic bottle. The more intricate and valuable the coating, the more expensive the bottle is likely to be.
* Quality of carved bottles made from glass, ivory or other materials, lies in the detail and intricacy of the carving and quality of craftsmanship.
* Snuff bottles had separate cap and sometimes their own small spoon. A bottle with top and spoon intact is worth at least two to three times more than snuff bottle minus partner items.
* When buying, compare bottle to cap and spoon, check finer details and design. Very often parts from separate incomplete bottles are partnered, sometimes innocently to create a usable specimen, often fraudulently to maintain value.
* If you can’t tell Japanese from Chinese creations call them ‘Oriental’ instead.
* Keep bottles free from strong light and heat, both of which cause materials to sweat and colours to fade, as well as leading to unsightly cracks in fine layers of paint and other delicate overlay.
* Look for tiny cracks and abrasions in glaze and coating, avoid any that are badly damaged. Snuff bottle collectors are finicky, and even tiny irregularities can deplete value considerably.
* Be on guard against fake ‘porcelain’ and ‘ivory’ snuff bottles which are commonly made from resin, hard plastic or bone. At auction look for ways to confirm items are old, such as letters or receipts relating to whatever is offered.
* Disregard ivory snuff bottles, especially modern creations. Ivory is commonly imported illegally and collected in truly inhumane manner which few people find acceptable, even the most enthusiastic snuff bottle collectors. Some countries tolerate the trade of vintage ivory, in others ivory of any age or form is banned from being sold or entering the country. So you could find yourself selling an ivory snuff bottle only to find it seized by the authorities at the buyers’ end.
Avril Harper is a business writer and eBay PowerSeller who has produced several guides to making money from eBay, including MAKE MONEY TEARING UP OLD BOOKS AND MAGAZINES AND SELLING THEM ON EBAY which you can read about at:http://www.magstoriches.com 103 POWERSELLER TIPS can be downloaded with other freely distributable reports and eBooks at http://www.avrilharper.com