1col snuff

Chinese snuff bottle from the collection of speaker Mitchell Bistany.

FOR 9/21

CAPE COD GLASS CLUB TALK ON SNUFF BOTTLES OCT 2 w/1 cut

avv/gs set 9/17 #712001

BARNSTABLE, MASS. — The Cape Cod Glass Club will kick off its eighth season with a meeting on Tuesday, October 2, at 1:30 pm, at the Sturgis Library on Main Street (Route 6A).

Mitchell Bistany of Sudbury, Mass., will speak on Chinese snuff bottles, their history and value as an art form. He will show a variety of them during his talk, but will focus on glass snuff bottles.

Bistany became intrigued by Chinese snuff bottles more than 35 years ago while waiting for his wife at an antiques show. She presented him with three snuff bottles the following Christmas and the rest, as they say, is history.

According to Bistany, the Chinese could not take a pinch of snuff as did the Europeans because their fingernails were too long. They devised bottles that had stoppers with a miniature spoon. They used the spoon to deposit snuff onto the web of skin between the thumb and forefinger, and were able to inhale it from there. From those functional objects, Chinese artists developed snuff bottles into a decorative art form.

The Cape Cod Glass Club is a not-for-profit chapter of the National American Glass Club. It is dedicated to the study and appreciation of glass regardless of the type or period, with emphasis on American glass.

The Cape Cod chapter meets monthly from October to December and from March to June. Activities include formal lectures, informal study sessions, and visits to museums and working glassmakers.

A field trip to Pairpoint Crystal Glass in Sagamore, Mass., will take place on November 6. Members and guests will meet there at 1 pm. Owner Tom Fiacco will discuss the company’s prominence in the history of glassmaking and will escort the group to the factory floor to view the furnaces, the process of color selection and the blowing of objects.

The club is open to new members. For information, contact membership chair Dorothy Schatz at 508-428-2141, or program chair Betsy Hewlett at 508-362-6875.