Seed Pod Snuff Bottle

I am one of 71 snuff bottles featured in the new Snuff Bottle Exhibit located in the Side Gallery of our museum. My looks are certainly deceiving. I am actually made out of ivory, formed and stained to look like a seed pod complete with a vine and butterfly.

I originated in Japan in the 1700s. In 2006, I had the good fortune to be discovered at an auction by our founder, Mary Hulton Phillips. I had a comfortable home with her, among many other companion snuff bottles, until the opening of The Maridon Museum in 2004. This past year, my companions and I were given a new special place of honor in the Side Gallery of the museum within the new Snuff Bottle Exhibit. This exhibit was dedicated in memory of James T. “Jim” Sweeney by his family.

The 70 other bottles accompanying me in this exhibit are unique, and we are truly diversified with materials of agate, amber, amethyst, cinnabar, cloisonne, coral, glass, hornbill, etc., just to name a few.

Please stop to see us the next time you are in the museum. Until then…