The following is from an article written by JM Klitz within the #7 January 1973, "The Snuff Bottle Collector" pamphlet.
Glass snuff bottles fall naturally into four classes:
1.) Plain colored glass with no carving at all.
Here there are three sub classes:
(a) single colored bottles whose colors are chosen for their own attraction:
(b) multi colored or variegated colors where two or more are mixed together.
(c) colored glass made in imitation of some natural material.
2.) Bottles whose colors fall into category 1 but which have, in addition, been carved.
3.) Overlay glass bottles. This is to say glass bottles of a simple color, for example: clear colorless, clear pink, camphor or snow flake of varying intensities and degrees of opacity, plain white glass or any one of almost any color, green, blue, red, yellow and so on. This basic bottle then has other colored glasses attached by a fusion process and these colored portions are then shaped to make a design.
These again fall into two very distinctive categories:
(i) (a) The universally recognized type called carved overlay where the overlay has been carved by a grinding process using rotating meal wheels and an abrasive material.
(b) similar process to (i) (a) but the overlay is very thin and there are usually a few characters carved somewhere, and a Chinese seal which gives the name "seal type" to these bottles. Nearly all were made ten years either side of 1880 (quite a number are dated). Now this type of bottle with the thin overlay is no seal or even characters on the bottle.
(ii) Much less common than class (i) In this case the added blobs of glass have been moulded into shape before being cooled and annealed there is no carving and therefore the outlines are much less distinct. Usually these bottles have a rather crude appearance, but the best have a great deal of charm as in the one shown (fig 12).
4.) Inside painted glass bottles. These form a completely separate class and although usually plain glass there have been two well defined series where the bottle has a carved colored overlay as well with windows through which the internal design can be seen. These were made in fairly sombre black and brown overlays round about the turn of the century and more recently in the last few years much brighter overlaid bottles have been used by the Shantung school artists. Naturally this class is more happily dealt with under the heading of inside painted as it is for this content that they are usually prized.
The universal favorite carved glass overlay bottle is a favorite; These are usually called Peking glass bottles because the carving and as far as we know the glass also, was produced, or at least worked, in that city.
This is the kind of bottle with which we are all probably familiar.
Before starting illustrations, let us just ponder briefly on the method of manufacture of these bottles. The earlier ones seem to come from Peking where first of all a simple plain bottle was made in a single color glass. This was still the use of hot blobs of another color being fused onto the surface and the whole thing very carefully annealed. A process which to be successful would take about a week. The basic bottle thus made goes to a carver who works with small metal wheels rotating at quite high speeds and fed with an abrasive powder, usually emery, but in the early days a fine forum of sand. Until relatively recently a simple bow-saw supplied the rotary motion and only two or three years ago foot power was in use even in sophisticated Hong Kong. The carver marks a basic design suggested by the shapes of the blobs of overlaid glass and gradually a design emerges. The final design is probably not settled until quite late in the proceedings when the imagination of the carver, or more likely his boss, has been given full range. When the pattern or design has been produced then comes a good deal of very hard and probably tedious work. This relates to the smoothing of the background. It is this part of the work, probably above all others that we can most easily use to make a first assessment of the quality of the piece. In a first class bottle this background will be perfectly flat and free from roughness and undulations. It should ideally look as though the overlay glass has been stuck onto a plain bottle. In a poorer quality bottles this background is neglected, just receiving rudimentary smoothing and polishing.
As far as our traditional knowledge goes the finest carved overlays were made in Ch’ien Lung period by one of three families. The Hsin family who generally worked in overlays of several different colors on either a clear glass bottle or one which had a slight camphor-like appearance due to bubbles of air trapped inside the glass. Then there was the family whose work is the rarest; they worked on a very fine camphor-like base, called in Chinese “Almond Milk” glass and their overlays were almost always in a single color, generally red. Finally, the most easily recognized were those of the Yuan family who used opaque white glass for the basic bottle. In the case of all three families, unlimited time and care was always lavished on the work.
When considering the purchase of a bottle, we look first of all the background. If the background is quite excellent then it may be the work of one of the three families mentioned. If so then we are in the presence of the finest work. But there are fine bottles whose origins are not known, most overlay glass bottles having been made in the 19th century probably excellent work being produced up to the last quarter of the century.
What classes of bottles are available to us ?
Those mentioned above. These may be single or multi colored overlays, all other things being equal we would expect to pay more for many colors. Five colors are not too unusual and up to 8 or 9 have been reported. However, the chief criterion is excellence of workmanship. A simple single color overlay of magnificent workmanship can be much more preferred over an indifferent multi -color. Prices indicate that this is a general opinion. Then we can have different kinds of basic glass bottles. These range from quite clear and colorless through increasing camphor or snow-flake effect to opaque material of different colors. Pale pink transparent glass is sometimes used with devastatingly beautiful effects. Almost all combinations of colors can be found if the seeker is diligent. A most attractive development is the double, triple and even quadruple overlay where layers of different colored glasses are laid one on top of the other. Naturally the greater the number of layers the rarer and the higher the price. Such bottles are usually of fine workmanship. Ten years ago bottles that were produced in China seem to have been made in the Shantung Province. Some are of very simple but not unattractive design and workmanship and there is no doubt that in the following years a good deal of improvements were made.
Present day Shantung carvers are capable of really good work. One hesitates to use the term “fine” which has been used for the best of the earlier works.
Whether the quality of the earlier masters will ever be equalled remains to be seen. At present we could say that it looks unlikely. However, it would be a rash man who would make a firm prediction when we consider the standards already reached by modern painters of inside painted bottles. Here certainly the quality of the earlier masters is being bettered today.
