The enormous variety of materials used to produce snuff bottles included a range of hard and soft stones. Semi-precious materials such as aquamarine, ruby, sapphire, tourmaline, lapis-lazuli, and turquoise, various types of quartz (crystal, citrine, amethyst), and the infinitely varied range of agate were all turned to imaginative use as snuff bottles. In this beautiful coffee-table book over 150 snuff bottles and other objects produced as art for the influential minority are complemented by descriptions, translations, and notes.