snuff bottle diagrams, hugh moss, snuff bottle appraiser. terms of moss's own invention?

biyanhu: from qing dynasty to republican china 

a quick overview of snuff bottles: originating with qing emperors, who became connoisseurs of premium european tobacco (see portuguese amostrinha), snuff bottles (biyanhu) were crafted in imperial workshops, a meeting place for disparate forms of craft &practise. their forms reference chinese medicine bottles of earlier eras, and it would be interesting to explore their relationship to chinese containers for opium, from 7th century through to the opium wars.

ming medicine containers, jade

louis xiv on a snuff box. though louis abhored snuff, like many of his time, he was still an avid collector

in europe, the snuff box held sway in politics and diplomacy as the ‘greatest political gift of the age’.* in china, it was similarly a required political and social accessory for the conquest qing elite of the beijing court + influencital literati/ scholar officials of Jiangnan 

qing-era motif: the smoking, melancholic woman, awaiting a far-off lover. women cld smoke as they liked, though where they did it (privately vs publicly) had different social meanings ('chaste' in private vs symbolic of being a sex worker if smoking openly)

dates remain uncertain as to when snuff entered china, but it likely originates from gifts from jesuit priests; continued to be given as offerings to the emperor from various european powers; eventually became a domestic product as well, though european imports remained coveted until it fell out of favour with the fall of the qing dynasty.

snuff taking is said to have gained traction across all social classes, but more on the nuances of this in materiality. nor was snuff used mainly because pipe tobacco was banned. tobacco continued to be smoked nationwide, by all including women and peasants, though it was seen as lower-class behavior.

snuff spread outward from beijing through the qing gift economy of guanxi. biyanhu were a currency for favours, advancement in government, well wishes on civil service exams. slightly lower social ranks (merchants and lower gentry) received biyanhu as gifts from members of the imperial household/ from literati patrons.

eventually, in the early 20th century, snuff culture faded to simply an export from beijing to inner mongolia, tibet, qinghai. the only people still using snuff in beijing were ‘old people with conservative habits.’*