Reverse glass painting in snuff bottles
Reverse glass painting in snuff bottles is a Chinese handicraft that flourished during the Qing Dynasty . Glass bottles are painted on the inside with fine brushes or bamboo sticks, the tips of which are soaked in paint.
Snuff was said to have medicinal properties in China. It was mixed with herbs and kept in ornate medicine bottles. The decorating of snuff bottles reached a high point in the 18th century.
In China, this handicraft is still practiced today by many artisans. Tens of thousands of people work in the snuff bottle decoration industry with an annual profit of several hundred thousand Chinese yuan (500,000 Chinese yuan is about 65,000 euros).
Glass bottles painted on the inside are therefore not a rarity. Exhibits with a wide variety of motifs, designs and prices can easily be found in various shopping portals and auctions. Some are traded on the art market and achieve collector prices. Works by the painter Bi Rongjiu (1874–1925), for example, founder of the Lu School, are highly valued.
There are essentially four schools: The Jing School in Beijing , the Lu School in Shandong , the Yaojiang School in Guangdong and the Ji School of Wang Xisan , who is currently bringing back glass painting in snuff bottles to a new bloom.