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Make money collecting Chinese snuff bottles

Carl Brennand 25th Oct 2019 One Comment

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The price of good-quality Chinese snuff bottles has shot up in recent years thanks to the growing knowledge of collectors. Get yourself some know-how on these trinkets and you could discover a fun way to make extra money on the side.

 

Snuff Bottles – The Background

Make money collecting Chinese snuff bottles

The bottles were created after the Chinese began importing tobacco in the late 16th century. They considered smoking to be harmful, but thought that taking it as snuff was actually medicinal – hence the production of snuff bottles rather than boxes or tins, as used in the West.

The 18th and 19th centuries, during the Qing dynasty, were the real glory days of snuff bottles. The bottles were made in various materials beloved of Chinese craftsmen, including metals, glass, porcelain, and even semi-precious stones such as jade. Organic materials like amber and coral were also popular.

Some are made of luminous glass or precious stones that look wonderful when lit from behind. Others require a magnifying glass to inspect the intricate carvings or paintings of hunting scenes. Most collectors want to have examples of every type of bottle, but some specialise in one material or style.

The fashion for taking snuff faded away early in the last century, but the bottles are still made for their aesthetic properties, often with great beauty and artistry.

We have another piece on making money selling empty perfume bottles, as they can also be pretty in their own way!

 

What’s the market for snuff bottles like?

Make money collecting Chinese snuff bottles

“We publish scholarly articles each year and that has been responsible for the market rising,” says John Ford, president of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society. “It has raised consciousness and people know much better what to look for.”

In fact, the society itself has been adversely affected by these price rises. It now has fewer members than it did 20 years ago because so many collectors can’t afford the bottles they want.

London dealer and society member Robert Kleiner agrees: “People are much better educated, so the good examples have gone up sharply in value while the mediocre ones have dropped enormously.

“The Chinese are beginning to recollect their art as they’ve become richer, and they will probably keep prices going up. They’re spending hundreds of thousands of pounds at a time, so it’s looking pretty healthy.”

 

An expert speaks

Robert Kleiner fell in love with Chinese snuff bottles 30 years ago after seeing them on a TV programme. He gave up his law career to find out more and to sell them. He is not unusual in reacting so strongly to these miniature masterpieces: many people are taken by their beauty, artistry and incredible detail.

“There are two or three recognised artists working in this field in China,” says Mr Kleiner. “Works by these ones, if they’re signed, go for around £800 to £2,000. There are a number of other good craftsmen around but they don’t sign their work so they don’t have such a high value. I deal in those that are ‘inside painted’ but not many other modern ones.”

Sadly, but not surprisingly, there are also many modern fakes of old bottles.

“There are artists in Beijing who will look at the Sotheby’s and Christie’s catalogues and simply copy them,” says Mr Ford. “You have to be discerning because many are very clever copies. It takes the eye of a connoisseur to pick them out.”

He recommends that less experienced collectors restrict their purchases to recognised dealers, particularly members of the society, to be on the safe side.

 

Demand and cost for Snuff bottles

Make money collecting Chinese snuff bottles

Christie’s and Sotheby’s have regular sales in which ‘high end’ items are auctioned. “Most of our bottles sell for £5,000 upwards,” says Desmond Healey of Christie’s. “And we find that they attract specialists who are looking for specific bottles to fill gaps in their collections. They don’t have mass-market appeal, probably because of the price.”

Snuff bottles are not too much affected by the vagaries of fashion. Generally, apart from the obvious issue of quality, enamel bottles fetch the highest prices while porcelain ones, largely because of the number that exist, are the lowest priced.

“You should expect to pay between £1,000 and £5,000 for a good-quality bottle,” says Mr Kleiner. “For some reason, amber and rock-crystal bottles are surprisingly cheap at the moment. You can get a stunning rock-crystal one for under £1,000, which is about half the price it should be.”

As an investment, the bottles are likely to hold or even increase their value, particularly the high-quality examples.

 

How much can I make?

Prices range from around £200 to anything in the region of £200,000 each. The most paid for a single item, reckons Mr Ford, was the $600,000 (around £330,000) spent by a Taiwanese businessman on a jade bottle. So roll on the tiger economies.

 

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Shubhit Prasad
Shubhit Prasad
8 years ago

Yes the article is very useful . However i want to know if we can create a decent market for snuff bottles in India.

Jasmine Birtles

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