Because snuff bottles are made of many materials, such as materials, porcelain, jade, jadeite, metal and precious stones. Ordinary connoisseurs can only study snuff bottles of a certain material, while those who know jade snuff bottles and porcelain snuff bottles may not know jade and gem snuff bottles, so they should study them one by one.
I. Quality of materials
Material, that is, today's glass. Glass itself is not expensive, so the material of snuff bottle is expensive. The best workmanship is "ancient Xuan Yue Cai", followed by five-color glass made in the West. Glass as white as crystal, as red as fire, as yellow as steamed chestnuts, as blue as gems and as green as jade is also rare.
The snuff bottle fired by Beijing court in Qing Dynasty is called official snuff bottle. Kangxi's official materials are already very particular. They are like natural minerals or semi-precious stones, and their colors can be almost confused. The official materials also imitate agate, amber, jadeite and suet white jade, which are moist and shiny. Guyuexuan branch line, with Ganlong producing the most. There were also Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, but the number was small. Not since Jiaqing.
The key to identify the ancient Xuanyue snuff bottle is that each ancient Xuanyue must be a pile of materials (the inscription is written on enamel and raised after firing). In addition, be sure to apply enamel glaze and enamel color. Among the glass materials in the Qing Dynasty, there was enamel, that is, enamel glaze was painted on the glass and baked.
In the Qing Dynasty, painted enamel was a specialty of Qianlong period. It is small, flat and round, with different flower patterns painted on it. Some of them are written in auspicious language, but they seldom draw scenic figures. The pattern is exquisite and complex, the color should be fresh and layered, and there should be no scratches or peeling marks. There are four fonts for the year of the dragon, and the blue book is used to imitate the song style, which is very neat and difficult to do.
Second, identification of porcelain snuff bottles
Most snuff bottles are made of porcelain. From the Kangxi Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, emperors made porcelain snuff bottles, but the best ones were made in Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Dynasties. During the Kangxi period, blue and white porcelain snuff bottles were first fired, made of pearls, with bright colors, which are rare now.
The blue-and-white glazed red kiln snuff bottle in Yongzheng period was fresh and delicate, so the blue-and-white snuff bottle with plasma tire was more creative and the carcass was fine. When the dragon is dry, it pays attention to the enamel snuff bottle with strong three-dimensional sense, and its achievements overshadow blue and white. The output of blue-and-white snuff bottles in Jiaqing kiln is not much, and the blue-and-white with strange glaze is the most expensive, but it is not as good as the carved porcelain snuff bottles at that time.
During the Daoguang period, porcelain snuff bottles were mostly fired in folk kilns, with a large number and emphasis on pastels. Many blue and white floating colors, uneven thickness, glaze and carcass are not closely combined. Most snuff bottles in folk kilns have no function of preserving value. From Jiaqing to Xianfeng and Guangxu, most of the shapes, decorations and themes were copied from the previous period, and few were creative.
Third, the identification of jade snuff bottles
Jade snuff bottles mainly look at "material bubbles". The fake jade snuff bottle made of glass and pine spices lacks heavy feeling, bright color, poor transparency and no "aura". If it is glass powder, rub its surface hard and you will find that the pot body is hairy.
The most expensive emeralds of jade snuff bottles are "emeralds", which are green in Jimo and clear in texture. Followed by "boxwood green", the color is slightly yellow and green. Once again, it is "spinach green", as green as spinach.
The identification and appraisal of agate snuff bottles should pay attention to the observation of agate snuff bottles, and counterfeiters often dye agate with chromatic aberration into bright red or other bright colors. The design of fake agate hookah is messy, just like ready mixed paint, and it is too smooth and dull. The fake agate hookah has poor hardness, many impurities and defects. It is necessary to prevent counterfeiters from putting agate into electric furnace to burn "red" at high temperature. This kind of red agate is called "burning red agate"
Four. Identification of amber snuff bottle
It is necessary to observe whether the texture is dense. If the texture is soft and easy to carve, it is mostly fake amber. Amber snuff bottles containing wood bark worms in the market are artificially made; Even though there are some tiny animals in amber, most of them are missing their heads and feet.
V identification of tourmaline snuff bottles
Tourmaline snuff bottles mainly depend on texture. Tourmaline belt changes greatly, and there are longitudinal lines on the crystal surface. The best products are uniform color inside the bottle, less "cotton willow" and high transparency. Some tourmaline snuff bottles contain clouds, which are not bright or bright and inferior. In the Qing dynasty, the western empress dowager especially loved tourmaline, which was popular for a while and the price was increasing day by day. After the death of the Western Empress Dowager, the status of tourmaline plummeted.
Extended data:
Snuff is a kind of tobacco products, which is made by baking, removing stems, crushing, fermenting and adding spices, and smelling it with your nose. Snuff became popular in Europe in the17th century, and was introduced to China in the later period.
At first, there were no special containers in China. From the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, hall of mental cultivation in the palace specially made a snuff bottle with a spoon attached to the bottle cap for scooping up cigarette powder. All kinds of snuff bottles, such as glass, bronze tire painting enamel, etc. Produced by the Qing Palace Department during the Kangxi period.
After the establishment of Xianfeng and Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, the number of snuff bottles made of precious materials in government-run workshops decreased significantly, mostly glass and porcelain. At this time, a large number of products of folk workshops appeared, with monotonous shapes, and themes such as historical figures, dramatic plots and street customs appeared in decorative patterns.
In the late Qing Dynasty, an internal painting pot appeared, and figures, landscapes and flowers and birds were painted on the frosted inner wall of glass or crystal hookah, which was a fine product. After the 1970s, internal painting pots developed rapidly.
Snuff bottles are valued because they are not only practical, but also have the functions of giving gifts and status symbols. Although it has only a history of more than 300 years since the Qing Dynasty, it has always been favored by Chinese and western museums and collectors because of its exquisite production and suitability for playing, and has become one of the important cultural relics in modern China.
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