The custom of smoking snuff originated in India, the inventor of tobacco. /kloc-in the 0/4th century, Italians selected superior tobacco leaves, mixed them with mint, borneol and other medicinal materials, ground them into powder, sealed the cellar and aged them, and produced commercial snuff a few years later.
Han people began to smell snuff in the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, snuff was rarely imported, only smoked in Guangdong. Kangxi opened the sea ban, and western missionaries carried a lot of snuff and glass bottles with snuff. Snuff smoking is becoming a fashion. Western countries pay tribute to snuff and glass snuff bottles, first Portugal, then Britain, France and other countries. Emperor Qianlong often rewarded princes and ministers with snuff, so smoking snuff gradually became a social fashion.
Snuff bottles are specially used to hold snuff. For convenience, it is generally as big as a pack of cigarettes. Among the existing cultural relics, Shunzhi Cheng made more than 20 bronze carved Yunlong snuff bottles, which are the earliest snuff bottles. Kangxi has a soft spot for western handicrafts. He absorbed a group of westerners who were familiar with making glass snuff bottles and painting enamel, and made snuff bottles in the Forbidden City. The art of snuff bottles reached its peak in Qianlong period. Appreciating the collection of snuff bottles is a common practice, and the use of snuff is gradually followed. All the skills of China traditional art: painting, calligraphy, porcelain burning, glaze application, jade grinding, rhinoceros smelting, tooth carving, bamboo carving, paint stripping, nesting, ornaments, gold and silver inlaying, mother-of-pearl inlaying, yellow paste and so on. They are all used on snuff bottles. During the Qianlong period, snuff bottles became a symbol of wealth.
The legend of snuff bottle
There is an interesting legend about the formation of inner painting. At the end of Qianlong, a local official went to Beijing to handle affairs. He is honest and honest, and hopes to handle it in a normal way. Because the court officials were inefficient and did not take bribes, although they waited for a long time, the affairs were delayed. The local petty official ran out of money and food, but he had no choice but to stay in a temple in Beijing. He is addicted to snuff. When the snuff in the glass snuff bottle was used up, he dug out the snuff stuck to the bottle wall with a cigarette stick, and many scratches were formed on the inner wall. The snuff bottle was seen by a scheming monk. Through experiments, monks baked and bent the nib with bamboo sticks, dipped it in ink, and drew pictures on the inner wall of transparent snuff bottles. This strange thing.
At first, the snuff bottle was a transparent glass bottle with no frosted inner wall. Because the inner wall is smooth, it is not easy to attach ink and color, so we can only draw some simple pictures and patterns, such as Chinese cabbage, dragons and phoenixes, bamboo slips and so on. Later, artists used iron ore and emery to add water to the inner surface of the snuff bottle, making the inner wall of the snuff bottle milky frosted glass.
How is the snuff bottle made?
Snuff bottle is a traditional handicraft, which started in Ming Dynasty and flourished in Qing Dynasty. The painted snuff bottle appeared at the beginning of Daoguang in the late Jiaqing period. It was drawn in a transparent jar with a special small hook brush. At first, the snuff bottle was a transparent glass bottle with no frosted inner wall. Because the inner wall is smooth, it is not easy to attach ink and color, so we can only draw some simple pictures and patterns, such as Chinese cabbage, dragons and phoenixes, bamboo slips and so on. Later, artists used iron ore and emery to add water to the inner surface of the snuff bottle, making the inner wall of the snuff bottle milky frosted glass.
Hengshui Yihuzhai Arts and Crafts Co., Ltd. (formerly Hengshui Special Craft Factory) is the birthplace of "Jipai" internal painting snuff bottles. Established in 1972.
After snuff was introduced into China, people in China first used traditional medicine bottles to hold snuff, and on this basis, they improved the snuff containers by using various materials and manufacturing processes. In the process of use, they found that the bottle with big mouth and small belly is more conducive to storing snuff, which can ensure that snuff will not deteriorate after long-term use, and it is convenient to carry, and its style has the traditional aesthetic feeling of China, so it is loved by snuff smokers. In the Qing Dynasty in China, snuff was very popular from the emperor to the people. The feudal nobles headed by the emperor were extremely extravagant. The snuff bottles they use often collect precious materials and are designed and manufactured by skilled craftsmen for them. Some collectors in the world think that snuff bottles are pocket-sized artworks that combine China's arts and crafts.
Snuff bottles are divided into:
Internal coating of metal jade organic ceramic feeder
Brief introduction of snuff bottle
Label:
China has been producing snuff bottles for 400 years. Regarding the origin of snuff, Zhao recorded in Lu Yong Gossip in Qing Dynasty: "Snuff comes from the Italian country along the Atlantic coast. In the ninth year of Wanli, Matteo Ricci entered Guangdong during the flood season and went to the capital. Providing Party things will only lead to China. People in China take a lot of snuff, and the number of short clothes is heavy, and they hide snuff in small bags. " The narrative in the book shows Zhao's views on snuff and hookah as a scholar-bureaucrat, a famous painter and seal engraver at that time, and a lot of information is precious.
Snuff is made by adding precious medicinal materials such as musk into finely ground high-quality tobacco powder and aging it in sealed wax pills for years or even decades. Smelling this smoke has a certain effect on relieving fatigue. It originated from American Indians and was discovered by European travelers exploring America. It was brought back to Europe and soon became popular. At that time, all the kings, princes, princesses and servants in the French court took snuff as a fashion. Napoleon I was also a snuff lover, and it was recorded that he consumed more than 7 pounds of snuff every month.
/kloc-After the 6th century, snuff was introduced to the northeast of China through Europe, the Philippines, Japan and Korea, where nomadic people could not smoke with pipes while riding horses. Therefore, the introduction of snuff is just suitable for their outdoor smelling characteristics. In order to make the snuff bottle strong and not afraid of falling and bumping, vagrants make it with all kinds of jade, metal and bone materials. According to historical records, snuff played a very important role in the social life of Mongols at that time. Whenever a guest visits the host's tent, the host will bow to the guest, holding the snuff bottle in both hands, and the guest will pour out a little snuff with his own snuff, put it on his nose for a while, and then return the snuff bottle to the host with both hands. This very small move is full of civilized manners, and its purpose is to build mutual respect and trust.
Although snuff and snuff bottles were not born in China, they were genuine foreign products, but they soon became popular in China. The first foreign snuff bottles that came to China were all made of glass. Wang Shizhen wrote in Jin Zu Notes: "Snuff is stored in glass bottles. The images of bottles are varied, and the colors are red, yellow, purple, white, black and green, white as crystal and red as fire. It's cute to play, ivory is the key, just like the nose, far away from the bottle. " But after all, the amount of imports is small and can't meet the needs of the people. Clever craftsmen use various materials to make exquisite snuff bottles, such as sad jade, precious stones, ivory, jade, porcelain, lacquerware, aggregate, metal and other materials. The more precious the material, the more it can reflect the identity of the owner. The snuff bottle made in China at the beginning of the 0/8th century A.D./KLOC has become a popular handicraft, which has gradually spread abroad through European businessmen, envoys of the Pope, ambassadors of various countries, missionaries and officials. When Russian imperial envoys went to China to worship Emperor Kangxi, they presented a large number of precious gifts from Peter the Great to the Qing Palace. The gift returned by Emperor Kangxi was a snuff bottle made by the royal workshop for everyone. During the Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty, China's snuff bottle was once the most precious international exchange gift, which spread overseas and was well known.
Someone once commented on the snuff bottle made in China in the Qing Dynasty: "A small snuff bottle combines the essence of culture and art in one furnace, and no China art craft can combine so many technological changes." . Therefore, as early as the end of 19, European and American art collectors began to pay attention to the snuff bottle collection in China. After 1989, the upsurge of collecting snuff bottles appeared in Southeast Asia, which is still in the ascendant, prompting the price of snuff bottles to rise rapidly. 1 April 9921day, at an auction of China art held by Swire Christie's Company in Hong Kong, a gold-plated enamel crane-patterned snuff bottle in Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty was bought by a collector in Taiwan Province Province at a high price of 1045000 Hong Kong dollars, setting a world snuff bottle auction record.
Precious medicinal materials such as musk are added to finely ground high-quality tobacco and alcoholized in sealed wax pills for several years to become snuff. Snuff comes in many colors, such as purple-black, old yellow and light yellow. The smell of snuff is mellow and spicy, and it has the effects of improving eyesight, refreshing, fighting epidemic and promoting blood circulation. It is said that in France, Napoleon was addicted to snuff and wanted to smell 7 Jin of snuff every month. /kloc-At the end of 0/6, snuff spread to Fujian, China, and was introduced to Japan by Portuguese and Spanish sailors, businessmen and missionaries through the Philippines, where it was planted. Later, Japanese tobacco spread to the northeast of China via Korea, and Manchu and Mongolian quickly developed the custom of smelling snuff. At the same time, Russian businessmen also brought snuff and snuff bottles into northeast China and Inner Mongolia, and then snuff became popular in China.
After snuff was introduced to China, people in China first used traditional medicine bottles to hold snuff, and then improved the snuff container with various materials and manufacturing techniques, which was called snuff bottle. China snuff bottle has a history of 400 years, and it is an important gift for international communication in Qing Dynasty. According to the records of the Qing Office of the Interior, "In the fifty-ninth year of Kangxi, on the fifth day of December, Le Jia, the envoy of the Western Regions, gave Le Jia a snuff bottle, a sickle bag and four purses ..." This shows that the habit of smoking snuff bottles and his love for snuff bottles have been integrated into the state affairs of that year.
In the Qing Dynasty, smelling snuff was very popular from the emperor to the people, and snuff bottles made of precious materials could better reflect the identity of their owners. There is a "workshop" in the palace to make snuff bottles specially for the emperor, and there are also workshops to make various snuff bottles among the people. The prevalence of snuff bottles can be confirmed in many ways: Zhao, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, has a monograph on snuff bottles; Wang Shizhen, a scholar, wrote in Notes on Xiangzu: "Snuff is stored in glass bottles, and the images in the bottles are various, including red, yellow, purple, white, black and green, white as crystal and red as fire ..." It is said that when the favorite of Emperor Qianlong was robbed, thousands of snuff bottles made of precious materials were copied.
There are all kinds of snuff bottles, including all kinds of precious stones and metals. Even the most common fruit seeds and bamboo roots can be made into exquisite snuff bottles through the ingenuity of artists.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were many famous pot makers and workshops, such as the master of ceramic hookah carving, with four famous painters, namely Zhou Leyuan, Ma Shaoxuan, Ding and Ye Zhongsan. The famous "Xin Jia Pi" and "Yuan Jia Pi" are both outstanding in the field of snuff bottles.
After the early years of the Republic of China, with the civil war and the decline of snuff smoking, the snuff bottle making industry was interrupted for half a century. In recent years, the production of various snuff bottles in China is unprecedentedly prosperous. The most prominent ones are painted snuff bottles and snuff bottles of various materials. These two types of snuff bottles have greatly surpassed the snuff bottles in the Qing Dynasty in quantity and quality, and the emerging production masters abound. There are scholars and collectors specializing in modern snuff bottles abroad, and there is also a "Snuff Bottle Association" in China to carry forward this traditional art.
Snuff is imported, but the snuff bottle is a genuine invention of China. In the Ming Dynasty, snuff began to flow into China in large quantities from abroad, usually in large glass bottles, weighing from four ounces to one catty. For the convenience of carrying and smoking, people in China usually put snuff in a small bottle of medicine. In the early years of Qing Dynasty, people in China smoked snuff, and snuff bottles made of hardwood, precious metals and precious wild horns began to appear. As China is a multi-ethnic country, Manchu, Mongolian and other ethnic minorities live in the wild for a long time, so snuff bottles must be durable and emphasize practicality. This is also an important feature of early snuff bottles. With the passage of time, snuff bottles have gradually developed from practical products to handicrafts and appreciation. In Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong became the heyday of snuff bottle making.
The producing areas of snuff bottles in Qing Dynasty were mainly concentrated in Beijing, Guangzhou, Liaoning, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and other places, and its production technology experienced the process from simple to complex, from coarse to fine, from plain to colorful and carved. Snuff bottles are generally divided into three categories: large, medium and small, and those with light body and thin shell are top grades. Its materials are crystal, jadeite, jade, agate, ivory, rhinoceros horn, horn, coral, enamel, porcelain, copper, glass and so on. Processing techniques include internal painting, relief, intaglio engraving, positive engraving and color registration. It can be said that the snuff bottle is a master of arts and crafts such as calligraphy and painting, sculpture, inlay, jade, porcelain, enamel and lacquerware in China.
Snuff bottles are mostly made of glass. Glass snuff bottles are also called snuff bottles. During the reign of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, a color matching technique was invented, that is, red, blue and black were put on the white ground or lotus root powder ground. Red, blue, green and black are the four colors when you cover the white ground. This method is also called single set. There is also an overlapping method, such as red on white background and blue on red background. Nested snuff bottles are from two generations of Kanggan, and there are also fine products in other years. For example, Sotheby's 1995 spring auction, a bird-patterned glass snuff bottle with red goldfish on a white background in the late Qing Dynasty was sold for HK$ 120750, and a glass tire painted enamel snuff bottle in the Qing Dynasty was sold for HK$1670,000.
China is a big country in porcelain making, so porcelain snuff bottles are also very popular, with a large number. Porcelain snuff bottles are made in the Qing Qianlong period as the top grade. Porcelain snuff bottles with Guo designs are also expensive. There are many kinds of porcelain snuff bottles, including three-color snuff bottles, blue-and-white snuff bottles, red snuff bottles and enamel snuff bottles.
Agate snuff bottles are mostly produced in Liaoning, because there are more agates produced in Liaoning. Agate is a precious mineral, so the colored carvings on agate snuff bottles are exquisite and deeply loved by collectors. Guardian 1996 auctioned an agate carved by Zhong Kui to marry a female snuff bottle in the spring, and the transaction price was RMB 68,000.
According to records, enamel was introduced into China from the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, so the artistic value of bronze enamel snuff bottles in the Qing Dynasty is also very high. Sotheby's 1995 Spring Auction sold a snuff bottle with painted enamel and broken flowers with copper tires for HK$ 48,300. In addition, jade snuff bottles are even more beautiful because of China's long history and exquisite craftsmanship. The production of jade snuff bottles began in the Qing Qianlong period. If snuff bottles earlier than this period are found, they are generally fakes. Jade snuff bottles have the most styles, which can be described as ever-changing. Different pot types such as melon, fruit, pear, peach, fish, cicada and turtle are very common. Another notable feature of the jade snuff bottle is the selection of jadeite, tourmaline and other precious stones as the lid, which also makes the price of the jade snuff bottle more expensive. Guardian 1996 "Spring Auction" introduced a white jade snuff bottle and a cigarette tray in Daoguang Light Year, with a transaction price of 70,000 yuan, and the other was a yellow jade carving snuff bottle in Daoguang Light Year, with a transaction price of 280,000 yuan.
In addition to the above-mentioned snuff bottles, there are also snuff bottles made of amber, marble, walnut, gourd and purple sand, among which there are many fine products. Snuff bottles are a big family, we should collect them step by step, and we should not be greedy, because no one can collect all kinds of snuff bottles. Collecting is an act of eternal regret, which is very bitter and tiring. But when you collect a snuff bottle with artistic value, facing this rare treasure in your hand, you will definitely feel different, and the fatigue you have been searching for will disappear instantly.