Snuff bottles

16 May 2024

This week our collection has been enriched with more than a dozen snuff bottles from China. These are miniature bottles in which tobacco grinded into powder was carried. Characteristic of this phenomenon are the stoppers of these bottles to which a mini spoon is attached. In this way you can bring the tobacco powder to your nose and then sniff it. Many snuff bottles are not only intended as a vial, they also function as a status object and as a collector's item. The acquisitions clearly show this. The origin of these exotic bottles is extra interesting for our museum in Amsterdam. They come from the estate of the portrait painter Clemens Merkelbach van Enkhuizen, who had a well-stocked display case of them in his impressive house along the Keizersgracht.

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