Antique Royal Bottle Openers

 Chihuly Garden and Glass here in Seattle has become a real tourist location. It features large scale glass sculptures by American artist Dale Chihuly. In addition to Chihuly's own artwork, the permanent exhibition features collections of Mr. Chihuly's. One of the collections is hundreds of antique bottle openers that Chihuly has acquired over the years. The bottle openers are displayed in large glass-fronted frames in the men and women's bathrooms, as well as in the waiting area for the Chihuly Collections Café. On a visit to the exhibition, I took a closer look at the bottle openers, and realized they are from all over the world, and many of them feature royal images!

A Thai (?) inspired silvertone bottle opener.

A US coin bottle opener, featuring our Lady Liberty in a tiara.

An Asian bottle opener, featuring a man in a royal headdress.

A Danish bottle opener, featuring a Danish coat of arms.

A bottle opener with Danish crossed flags and a crown.

A bottle opener from 1911 featuring a crude portrait of King George V of Great Britain.

A goldtone bottle opener with a crude portrait of Queen Victoria.

My personal favorite - a bottle opener with a highly detailed profile view of a princess or queen, whom is wearing a full matching suite of jewelry, including earrings, tiara, and hair comb.

A golden crown bottle opener.

Another Asian or Thai piece.

Another coin piece, showing a person wearing a small bandeau.

Fancy Snuff Bottles

 These are a collection of snuff bottles in the permanent collection of the Seattle Art Museum here in the US. The following are pictures I took of my favorites, and I think they turned out pretty well. I don't have info for each snuff bottle unfortunately, but I have included some basic info about snuff bottles from Wikipedia.com. Enjoy the following pics of these lovely objéts d'art:

 Snuff bottles were used by the Chinese during the Qing Dynasty to contain powdered tobacco. Smoking tobacco was illegal during the Dynasty, but the use of snuff was allowed because the Chinese considered snuff to be a remedy for common illnesses such as colds, headaches and stomach disorders. Therefore, snuff was carried in a small bottle like other medicines. The snuff bottle is comparable to the snuff box used by Europeans.

  Tobacco was introduced by the Portuguese to the court at Beijing some time during the mid- to late-16th century. It was originally smoked in pipes before the establishment of the Qing Dynasty. The use of snuff and snuff bottles spread through the upper class, and by the end of the 17th century it had become a part of social ritual to use snuff.

This lasted through most of the 18th century. Eventually, the trend spread into the rest of the country and into every social class. It was common to offer a pinch of snuff as a way to greet friends and relatives. Snuff bottles soon became an object of beauty and a way to represent status. The highest status went to whoever had the rarest and finest snuff bottle. The peak of snuff bottle manufacture was during the 18th century.

The use of snuff increased and decreased with the rise and fall of the Qing Dynasty and died away soon after the establishment of the Republic of China. However, replica snuff bottles are still being made, and can be purchased in souvenir shops, flea markets and museum gift shops. Original snuff bottles from the Qing period are a desirable target for serious collectors and museums. A good bottle has an extra quality over and above its exquisite beauty and value: that is touch. Snuff bottles were made to be held and so, as a rule, they have a pleasant tactile quality.

The size of a snuff bottle is small enough to fit inside the palm. Snuff bottles were made out of many different materials including porcelain, jade, ivory, wood, tortoiseshell, metal and ceramic, though probably the most commonly used material was glass. The stopper usually had a very small spoon attached for extracting the snuff. Though rare, such bottles were also used by women in Europe in Victorian times, with the bottles typically made of cut glass.

Chinese snuff bottles were typically decorated with paintings or carvings, which distinguished bottles of different quality and value. Decorative bottles were, and remain, time-consuming in their production and are thus desirable for today's collectors.