Until the early 1900s the volume of snuff produced in China far exceeded that of tobacco for smoking or chewing. Everyone took it – from the poet Alexander Pope to naturalist Charles Darwin, actress Sarah Siddons and the Duke of Wellington. Lord Nelson took large quantities to sea with him, while Napoleon sniffed over seven pounds a month. Physicians made great claims for it, prescribing snuff for headaches, insomnia, toothache, coughs and colds and recommending it as a measure against contagion. Today snuff bottles remain eminently collectible. The enormous variety in materials, subject matter, colour and shape provides a fascinating trail for the dedicated collector.

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The magnificent thirteen metre gold and ivory statue of Zeus was found inside his temple at Olympia on a throne described by a contemporary ‘as an elaborate structure of cedar wood, laid in with ebony and richly adorned with valuable stones and sculptures’. His figure required so much ivory Philo of Byzantium claimed it was [...]

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