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Lot Essay
This extraordinary book is the volume of snuff-bottle illustrations that accompanied the catalogue published in 1874 by William Bragge, Bibliotheca Nicotiana. A Catalogue of Books about Tobacco together with a Catalogue of Objects Connected with the Use of Tobacco in All its Forms. Bragge was a well-traveled, successful businessman whose enormous collection of tobacco-related objects included snuff bottles. His collection was sold at Sotheby's, London, in 1876.
The binder of the album, Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1886), was born in Hungary and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to a bookbinder in Stuttgart. After working in Austria, Germany and France, he moved to London in 1837. In 1842, he and his son, also named Joseph, set up their own workshop in Cambridge Circus, which was to become the leading bookbinders in England. The business and the Zaehnsdorf name were likely carried on by the son after his father's death, leaving the exact dating of this binding uncertain, although the most likely date is probably in the 1870's.
Charles Holme, who subsequently came into possession of the album, was the founder and editor of The Studio Magazine, one of the most influential art magazines of its time. In an article by Marcus B. Huish entitled "A Little Appreciated Side of Art, Chinese Snuff Bottles," The Studio Magazine, June 1896, he notes that the editor of the journal is "the fortunate possessor of a volume of facsimiles in color executed for Mr. Bragge of a large number of his bottles." Huish also mentions in his article that when Bragge's bottles were sold at auction that many of them were acquired for the British Museum.
As one can gather from the illustrations, either Bragge, or the artist, favored porcelain bottles. The two porcelain bottles decorated with tree trunks and lingzhi shown photographed with a comparable bottle illustrated in the Bragge volume are in the J & J Collection, illustrated in Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection,, nos. 238 and 239. The leaf-shaped white-porcelain bottle is also in the J & J Collection, and is illustrated in the same publication, no. 236. The album also includes a few bottles in other materials, most notably the extremely rare agate bottle in the form of a reclining stag, now in the collection of Denis Low, which finds its complement in the J & J Collection (see lot 19).
The binder of the album, Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1886), was born in Hungary and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to a bookbinder in Stuttgart. After working in Austria, Germany and France, he moved to London in 1837. In 1842, he and his son, also named Joseph, set up their own workshop in Cambridge Circus, which was to become the leading bookbinders in England. The business and the Zaehnsdorf name were likely carried on by the son after his father's death, leaving the exact dating of this binding uncertain, although the most likely date is probably in the 1870's.
Charles Holme, who subsequently came into possession of the album, was the founder and editor of The Studio Magazine, one of the most influential art magazines of its time. In an article by Marcus B. Huish entitled "A Little Appreciated Side of Art, Chinese Snuff Bottles," The Studio Magazine, June 1896, he notes that the editor of the journal is "the fortunate possessor of a volume of facsimiles in color executed for Mr. Bragge of a large number of his bottles." Huish also mentions in his article that when Bragge's bottles were sold at auction that many of them were acquired for the British Museum.
As one can gather from the illustrations, either Bragge, or the artist, favored porcelain bottles. The two porcelain bottles decorated with tree trunks and lingzhi shown photographed with a comparable bottle illustrated in the Bragge volume are in the J & J Collection, illustrated in Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection,, nos. 238 and 239. The leaf-shaped white-porcelain bottle is also in the J & J Collection, and is illustrated in the same publication, no. 236. The album also includes a few bottles in other materials, most notably the extremely rare agate bottle in the form of a reclining stag, now in the collection of Denis Low, which finds its complement in the J & J Collection (see lot 19).