inside Painting ART
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Inside painted bottles
The class of bottle that arouses most interest in the non-collector is that known as inside painted. No other type of bottle arouses as much curiosity or provokes such amazement. These are glass bottles which have pictures and often written characters painted on the inside surface of the glass.
The quality of the painting and calligraphy to be seen on many of these bottles challenges belief. It has to be remembered that these delightful scenes are, first of all, only an inch or two high and are painted whilst manipulating the brush through the neck of the bottle maybe only a quarter inch across, and also painted in reverse. One can imagine that the degree of training and practice required, not to mention patience, must quite difficult. Ursiula Bourne, in her treatise on snuff, suggests that artisans painted on their backs to make it easier to work through the narrow opening.
It has been said that a skilled artist may complete a simple bottle in a week whilst something special may take a month or more and that the best craftsmen will produce only a few bottles in a year.
The earliest inside painted bottles are thought to have been made in the period between 1820 and 1830. As, by then, the beauty of a snuff bottle was probably more important than utilitarian considerations - and filling this kind of bottle with snuff would surely damage the painting inside - few would have been used for holding snuff. Inside painted bottles are still made today - expensively for collectors and inexpensively as souvenirs.
Modern Inside Painted BottleThe modern bottle at right is an interesting example. While it is beautifully painted, the picture does not have the authority of a fine artist - the subject is somewhat commonplace, but the technique is faultless. It was purchased from a Chinese dealer who visits China to buy his stock. So there is no chance of it being bought in a back street shop from someone who did not know its value. It was obviously bought and sold in the normal course of trade, with at least three profit margins - the atelier, the merchant and the dealer. Purchased new at 15 pounds sterling, it beggars belief that such quality is available at that sort of price.