Legendary Stories
A legend exists about how interior painting of snuff bottles came about. During the Qianlong period, an honest 
government official from the village entered the capital to conduct some business with city officials. Because he did not want to go through the typical bribing process to accomplish business, he waited a long time until his funds ran out. As a result, he found boarding at a nearby monastery where he practiced his favorite hobby of snuffing. Every time that the snuff ran out, he would use a snuff pick to scrape the remaining snuff along the inner wall of the bottle. The pick formed many scratch marks along the interior wall. This was noticed by a monk who created a hook on one end of a bamboo pick and dipped it in ink, thereby drawing paintings along the inner wall of bottles. Over time, the simplistic paintings have evolved and today, we have the fortune to appreciate many detailed works of fine art, including paintings, poetry and calligraphy work.
