Snuff jar

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Snuff glasses (in the Zwiesel Forest Museum , 2014)

A snuff jar is a handcrafted glass object that is used to store snuff , similar to the snuff box .

History and Development

Occurrence in Bavaria

Snuff glasses are particularly common in the Bavarian and Bohemian Forest , especially in the Zwiesel , Frauenau and Spiegelau areas . First references to the production of snuff glasses are documented in old production reports from the 17th century. The terms “Tobackhpixl” or “Tabakbüchsel”, which denote glass objects for tobacco storage, appear especially in the Bavarian and Bohemian regions. The colloquial expression “Büchsel” has been preserved to this day.
While the manufacture of snuff glasses declined due to the war in the 18th century, numerous evidence of their existence and distribution can be found again at the beginning of the 19th century. Carrying your own snuff glass was part of everyday life in Bavaria due to the current popularity of snuff. With the advent of cigarettes and inexpensive stoneware bottles after the First World War , the glass snuff bottle was largely displaced from everyday life, but experienced its comeback from 1960 onwards due to increasing interest from collectors, which also fueled production again. The originally everyday commodity now increasingly turned into a collector's item and a diverse art object. In most cases, however, this still happens against the background of the traditional snuff glass.

Snuff containers from other countries

Sources from the 18th century document the manufacture of different colored snuff glasses in distant China . A handicraft tradition of painting behind glass on the inside of snuff bottles has developed to this day . In the course of this century, snuff bottles made of other materials, such as porcelain , were also manufactured there. In South America , natural materials such as wood, horn or nuts predominated , while in Spain, in addition to these materials, cans made of precious metals were particularly popular in the 18th century . Bottle-shaped containers were mostly made of wood, horn or ivory in Spain , the use of glass is not documented. The situation is similar with East African snuff containers. In Pomerania, on the other hand, in the 19th century, in addition to horn or metal, bottles similar to the Bavarian snuff glasses appeared.

Manufacturing and Techniques

Flay

In addition to industrial production around 1900 in the Zwiesel and Spiegelau area, the production of snuff glasses also took place during the so-called "Schindens". Glassmakers used their breaks during working hours to make items for their own use or for private resale, so-called shoddy goods, from waste material or materials in stock . This type of enrichment was quite common practice and is tolerated to this day. In addition to the motivation for the additional earnings, the attraction of flinging was also the creative freedom, which was often neglected in the glassmaker's everyday work. In the course of time, more and more individual and artistic techniques developed.

Manufacture of a snuff glass

The production of a snuff glass is of technical complexity and should therefore only be explained in broad outline. The glassmaker's most important tool in making a snuff glass is the glassmaker's pipe . Molten glass is applied to this by dipping and rotating in the port furnace . In order to bring this glass into the desired shape, it is blown through the pipe and turned in a wooden mold, a so-called model . This basic shape can now be further designed using various processing techniques, for example by cutting or flattening. To do this, the glass is repeatedly heated in the oven. Finally, it is separated from the pipe by a blow so that the glassmaker can now design the opening and the collar. The further processing of a snuff glass is carried out by grinders, engravers or glass painters .

Different techniques

Flashed glasses

With overlay glass, the glass usually consists of two different colored layers, the inner and outer overlay. Overlay techniques with up to seven different layers are also possible. By grinding and engraving , attractive effects can be achieved with flashed glasses.

Thread glasses

Different colored glass rods are attached to the basic glass body and melted down. Deformations and twists as well as post-processing with different tools result in different decors such as herringbone, mesh or wave decor.

Mascherl

Perhaps the most difficult technique is that of the glass jar. For this purpose, small, intricately designed glass rods, which were specially manufactured beforehand, are applied to the basic glass body. These sticks now completely enclose the glass. Due to their differences in color and design as well as the combination on the glass, each and every stitch is unique.

Braided

A consistently fine, long glass thread is wrapped around a basic glass body, which has already been refined using colored glass technology, so that it tightly encloses the entire glass. This process is called "spinning around".

Hollow-laced

Decorative thin, hollow air channels run through so-called hollow-laced glass. This is achieved by combining a ribbed core and a jacket. The extremely complicated technique is usually carried out by two glassmakers together.

Since there are no limits to the glassmaker's imagination, creativity and willingness to experiment, there are numerous other techniques that continue or combine the basic techniques outlined above.

Finishing

The glasses, which were made by the glassmakers using the above techniques, are often reworked by other artisans. An engraver can engrave the snuff jar entrusted to him. While this technique was often used in the past for engraving names or sayings, nowadays it is also used for artistic sculptural design of the base glass. A grinder gives a glass the right cut, with numerous possible variations. With the so-called sandblasting technique, glass surfaces are matted. The glass painting offers the possibility to design the glasses with enamel colors in a variety of ways.

Snuff glasses as a collector's item

From the 1960s, the snuff glass, which had gone out of fashion after the war, increasingly became a collector's item. The great variety in shape, color, technology and finishing is what makes it so attractive for many collectors . The publication of the book “Brasilflaschl & Tabakbüchsl” by Heiner Schaefer in 1978 offered many collectors an initial guide to the value and type of snuff glasses. This resulted in both an increase in the value of old glasses and an increase in the number of collectors. The production of snuff glasses in large numbers was particularly stimulated by this increasing demand. Due to the increasing value, which is based on the great demand above all for antique glasses, artificially aged fakes are now being produced and offered for sale, which is why caution is advised.

literature

  • Heiner Schaefer: Snuff glasses - gems from the Bavarian forest . Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1997
  • Heiner Schaefer: News from the tobacco glass - snuff glasses from Bavaria . Volume 4.Rain 2012
  • Heiner Schaefer: Brasilflaschl and Tabakbüchsl - snuff glasses from four centuries . Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1978
  • Heiner Schaefer: "Snuff, brother!" - pinches, cans, tobacco bottles . Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1985

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heiner Schaefer: News from the tobacco glass . Regen 2012, p. 7
  2. ↑ Heiner Schaefer: News from the tobacco glass . Regen 2012, pp. 8–9
  3. ↑ Heiner Schaefer: News from the tobacco glass . Regen 2012, pp. 8, 14, 16, 20
  4. ↑ Heiner Schaefer: Snuff glasses. Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1997, pp. 39-41
  5. ↑ Heiner Schaefer: Snuff glasses. Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1997, pp. 65-67
  6. ↑ Heiner Schaefer: Snuff glasses . Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1997, pp. 69-92
  7. ↑ Heiner Schaefer: Snuff glasses . Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1997, pp. 93-102
  8. ↑ Heiner Schaefer: Snuff glasses . Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1997, pp. 50-52

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