The bottles embody Chinese history, art, and culture.

 From a daily tool to a piece of art

Snuff is introduced to China.

Snuff bottles were originally used as containers for snuff, tobacco that is sniffed rather than smoked. In 1601, Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit priest, presented a set of 13 different-shaped snuff bottles as a tribute to the Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Snuff found its way into the Chinese royal family and gradually became popular among the upper class. It was also popular among the nomadic groups of Northeastern China, largely because it was more convenient for those on horseback to sniff than smoke tobacco. In daily life it was polite and respectful for a host to present a snuff bottle to a guest who would then have a sniff at it.

By the end of the 17th century snuff was popular throughout China. It was said to be as important to people as food and water. For both the poor and the rich, a day wasn't complete without a pinch of snuff, and those who didn't use it might have been laughed at as country bumpkins. More western-style snuff bottles were introduced to China as more missionaries traveled to this oriental empire and won the favor of Qing Dynasty emperors. These snuff bottles were decorated with various embossments or paintings. For instance, those of the missionaries were embossed with the figure of Jesus. While appreciating the art of the western-style snuff bottles, Chinese found the wide-mouth containers unsuitable for the humid climate of China because the snuff would easily turn moist and rot if exposed to humid air for a long time.

Traditional medicine bottles, with narrow openings and airtight covers, proved to be ideal substitutes. To meet the ever-increasing demand for workable and aesthetically appealing snuff bottles, Emperor Kangxi had the Imperial Glass Workshop set up in 1696 and ordered the production of snuff bottles using the shape of the medicine bottles. The emperor attached such great importance to the bottles that some western glass and enamel specialists were invited to the workshop and a set of strict rules was established to ensure their quality. Every finished snuff bottle couldn't be presented to the royal family until it was checked by inspectors at different levels. Craftsmen who did a good job were rewarded. Those who did not were punished. Snuff bottles produced in the Imperial Glass Workshop were exclusively for the royal family. Soon after, more workshops emerged outside the imperial palace, and even outside Beijing , to meet the needs of common people.

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