Inside painted glass snuff bottles

Inside-painted glass snuff bottle with yellow coloured background and with two pairs of birds in foliage. They are hand painted and made of very high quality cut glass.

The inside painting artwork in snuff bottles was known as imperial artwork during the Qing dynasty. These kind of miniature paintings within bottles were once collected by the emperors of China and are still made today. They did not actually hold snuff, but were more considered for their beauty. The glass bottles have pictures and often calligraphy painted on the inside surface of the glass.
These elegant images are very tiny and are painted while manipulating the brush through the (very thin) neck of the bottle and are painted in reverse. It has been said that a skilled artist may complete a simple bottle in a week while something special may take a month or more and that the best craftsmen will produce only a few bottles in a year.