miniature interiors

January 17, 2009 10:32 PM

Carving a snuff bottle for painting. Types of snuff bottle painting: slide show. Step by step process of painting inside. A painting in its cultural setting. Some contemporary images: Tornado on the highway l aurora. With a special 90-degree-angle paintbrush used to paint inside glass or crystal objects, artists can achieve exquisitely unique paintings.Some of the painting tools used: the bamboo pen l writing brush l lily magnolia.

A few masters who paint the interiors of snuff bottles. "Hengshui, a county in Hebei Province, is known as the home of interior painting, an art form that is very special to China. As a result of its superlative craftsmanship, interior painting has been praised as a peculiar and magnificent treasure for collectors."

The history of inside-painted snuff bottles.

Hengshui Inner-bottle Painting

Wang Xisan, Painting inside Crystal Snuff Bottles

posted by nickyskye (3 comments total)

That was much more interesting than I thought it would be. I was expecting a "snuff film".

The idea of painting inside bottles, let alone snuff bottles, is completely new to me. Thanks!
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:33 AM on January 18

The person I was named after collected a lot of the older inside-painted snuff bottles. It was quite a collection and said to be quite expensive.
posted by kalessin at 9:05 AM on January 18

Although fascinating, I can't escape the feeling watching that video that I was observing several Chinese artisans in the process of developing horrifying cases of silicosis.
posted by nanojath at 11:13 AM on January 18