Jade snuff bottle, mid-19th century. Sold at Skinner's for $5,750.
Skinner Auctions photo

Surprisingly, old Chinese snuff bottles come to auction with regularity. When they are authentic - 1900-1920 - they can sell for thousands of dollars.

Among the most expensive are those carved of jade and other semi-precious stones, along with those miniature masterpieces inside painted snuff bottles. There are also many selling at auction for a couple of hundred dollars.

At a recent Skinner auction of Asian works of art, prices realized ranged from $5,750 for a carved jade snuff bottle to a lot of four ivory snuff bottles for $143.75. Even two interestingly carved agate snuff bottles were bargains at $201.25 for the pair.

CLUES: Beginning collectors should get acquainted with the look and feel of authentic pieces. For instance, jade-color stones are often passed off as jade. New snuff bottles are also lighter in weight and the workmanship isn't as good. In fact, many of the so-called inside painted bottles are brand new - and made with decals. Details are often simply outlined.

A jeweler's loupe shows them for what they are. New agate and jade-types, unlike old, authentic ones, can be scratched across the bottom with any sharp objects. The "cinnabar" items are made of plastic and look "fakey." Carefully examine for damage. Quartz and agate should be selected for the quality of the carving and the stone. Avoid any ceramic bottles that show firing faults and a poor figural image.

"Ming" is a good name to drop in the snuff bottle category. And "dropped" it should be since snuff was barely known in the Ming Dynasty. Yet, before World War II, ceramic snuff bottles, with colored, raised biscuit work were sold to tourists and labeled "Ming." Originally they came in sets of four to eight and were sold at Chinese seaports. These days, they are sold separately, in silk-lined boxes for several hundred dollars to the unknowing.

Other obvious fakes are the Mandarin figural-couple bottles of ivory. Actually they are bone and falsely aged.

By the 1970s, collecting snuff bottles had become a hot hobby. The tourists who flooded China at the time bought snuff bottles from baskets, sold by street vendors for a dollar a bottle. Many appeared to be painted inside. By the end of the '70s they were showing up at American antique shows as rare and old.

The earliest snuff bottles were made of incised bronze. From then on a variety of materials ranging from enamel and glass to semi-precious stones were fashioned into snuff containers. Snuff bottles generally measure no more than 2 1/2 inches high, and were first made with a practical purpose in 17th century China.

Two names to remember as masters of the art of interior-painted snuff bottles are Ma Shao-Hsuan and Yeh Chung-San the Younger. A trademark of Ma Shao-Hsuan: rams and a bright sun. The most rare are his portraits of European subjects, which often fetch five figures when they come up for auction.

Originally snuff bottles came with a matching saucer or cup.