Chinese drawstring bag

Used for carrying a snuff bottle

From: Dorset Museum & Art Gallery

This small bag, also known as an incense purse, probably dates from the end of the Qing Dynasty. The purse was probably made between 1890 and 1910, after which date the use of snuff went out of fashion. We do not know how it came to Dorset – whether it is a souvenir from a visit to China or part of the late nineteenth century trade to Britain in Chinese textiles and accessories.

Chinese drawstring bag - From Dorset Museum’s collection

Intricate craftsmanship

People often carried these bags as part of traditional Chinese costume and they came in beautiful colours with rich embroidery. The silk satin purse is lined with linen and decorated with delicate tassels. It closes at the top and has a string loop on either side for carrying. It is embroidered in silver gilt and coloured threads with couched animals, insects, and fruit.

Chinese drawstring purse - T.303 embroidered drawstring purse from Dorset Museum & Art Gallery's collection
Chinese drawstring purse - T.303 embroidered drawstring purse from Dorset Museum & Art Gallery's collection

Lost stories

We occasionally come across objects within Dorset Museum & Art Gallery’s collection that are undocumented. Whether that’s because they arrived at the museum years ago, where documentation standards were not quite so high, or that documentation has since been lost. A lot of the time, we do not know how these objects arrive at the museum, their stories, or where they came from. We are in the process of trying to link historic documentation to these objects in the hope of uncovering lost histories.

Snuff bottles

These bags contained elegant glass or china snuff bottles. The Chinese began making snuff bottles around the mid-seventeenth century, when the Portuguese introduced the habit of inhaling ground-up tobacco to the country. It was common to offer a pinch of snuff as a way to greet friends and relatives. Snuff bottles soon became an object of beauty and a way to represent status and wealth.

Close up of T.303 embroidered drawstring purse From Dorset Museum & Art Gallery's collection
Close up of T.303 embroidered drawstring purse From Dorset Museum & Art Gallery's collection

Curator’s Insights

Marlene Heinrich, a volunteer gallery steward at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, chose this object because it carries many untold secrets. She said:

“Small, of faded yellow silk, images of a scorpion, a toad, and even possibly a dragon, amongst other unknowns, interwoven with gold and silver threads, it spoke of riches and power, or mystery and intrigue.

Its beauty was rare. Now, it lay, carefully preserved in Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, no longer for prestige but for a different kind of appeal. To us now, so far away in time and distance from its first life of opulence, it had somehow reached another kind of value – to all, who like myself, value craftsmanship, the importance of social history, and the hidden story of each particular item.

How did it reach Dorchester? Was it the work of one or many? Which incredible-to-us spices were used to scent it? Had it been stolen, given or simply lost?

These unanswered questions, the hidden voice of all museum exhibits, to me, are most important of all and give museums a permanent place in our society.”

 

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