476 - Eight erotic porcelain snuff bottles with relief scenes, partly Karl Ens Volkstedt, Kämmer

Eight erotic porcelain snuff bottles with relief scenes, partly Karl Ens Volkstedt, Kämmer Porcelain, partly polychrome painted, partly gilt, glazed, eight snuff bottles, including Karl Ens Volkstedt, Kämmer Rudolstadt and Sitzendorfer Porzellanmanufaktur, partly marked on the base, both sides with finely worked erotic scenes in relief, among them Leda and the Swan, two bottles white with black-outlined relief, some motifs duplicated, good condition commensurate with age, stoppers missing, approx. 8x6x2 cm (HxWxD) Snuff bottles originate from China, where the taking of snuff spread first at the court in Beijing after the founding of the Qing dynasty in 1644 and had reached all classes of society by the end of the 18th century. Unlike in Europe, where snuff was kept in boxes, in China it was dispensed in small bottles like a medicine. The porcelain factory Karl Ens began operation in 1899 in Volkstedt near Rudolstadt, after Ens had previously worked in the family company Triebner, Ens & Co. of his father; it became known for lifelike modelled animal and bird figures. The Kämmer manufactory was founded by Rudolf Kämmer and Paul Kramer in 1946 in Rudolstadt-Schwarza; in 1954 it moved to Volkstedt. The Sitzendorfer Porzellanmanufaktur in Thuringia goes back to Wilhelm Liebmann, who founded it in 1850.