For millennia, jade has been among the most valued of materials to the Chinese, prompting the production of a wide range of utilitarian, symbolic, and artistic wares. In the late seventeenth century these included the newly invented snuff bottles in which the new Manchu rulers of China carried their powdered tobacco, although a much wider range of materials was also turned into snuff bottles. These treasures of miniature Imperial art also featured as gifts and rewards, distributed by the thousands by the court on special occasions; they also made for convenient bribes among officials. During the eighteenth century snuff taking was mainly a northern habit centred on Beijing and the Court, with the Palace Workshops producing a wide range of bottles for imperial use and distribution. In this beautiful coffee-table book 170 snuff bottles are accompanied by various other wares made of jade for the influential minority. They are all accompanied by descriptions, translations of any Chinese texts, and notes.