A beige, well hollowed, plain chalcedony ladies snuff bottle, with a pink tourmaline stopper.

B2

Quartz, chalcedony and crystal, the small, well hollowed bottle of rounded form; of unusual formation with crystalline quartz above a horizontal band of creamy white and caramel brown chalcedony, all on a raised oval foot rim.

Chinese, 1750-1860
Stopper: dark pink tourmaline
Provenance: The Ko collection, sold at Christies, London, Robert Hall  
Ex. Bob Hall Collection
Height: 3.5cm

It is rare to find this combination of materials in the form of a snuff bottle. Whilst this intriguing bottle is of small size it is by no means certain that such bottles were reserved for the use of ladies, in fact there is little historical information to support the suggestion that snuff taking by ladies was as prevalent as with men.