starter. They look rather mundane, but have an interesting story to tell. Their shape, a fairly wide mouth
with no neck, on a rather square bottle, easily identifies these as snuff bottles. They were made this way to make it easy to reach in for a dip of snuff! They are marked on the bottom with various raised dots, which
are an indicator of the strength of the snuff inside. The more dots, the stronger the snuff. This helped the workers who were filling the bottles before labels were attached, to know which strength to put in which bottle, as well as the consumer, who might have been illiterate and unable to read the label to determine the strength. I'm told that bottles with 5 or 6 dots (I've not found any of these) indicated the strongest strength and would only have been chewed, whereas the lesser strengths were "sniffed". I understand that elderly women used the snuff as well as men! Doesn't this conjure up quite an image of a little old lady in her rocker, sitting on her porch, "chawin and spittin" ? I'm told that these bottles and their contents were most prevalent in the Southern part of the United States.
Now we aren't likely to buy or carry our snuff in these today, but I think they make a fun little vase filled with flowers marching down the table. You could also store spices in them and cork them, use them for altered art, storing beads, buttons etc. All in all, I think they are a unique little item to perhaps pair with other amber bottles or glassware. And think of the dinner table conversation you could have!!! You'll find these at Splendid Antique Mall on Milwaukie Avenue in the Sellwood/Westmoreland area. I'm in space #62.
Bottle with 2 dots on bottom.
Bottle with 3 dots on bottom
Bottle with 4 dots
Used as vases
I hope you've enjoyed looking at these. Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
Charlotte
