Featured White Metal Gem Set Snuff Bottle - Region

Hi everyone, sorry I've not been around much recently, got a lot going on at the moment.

This little piece has me stumped though, egg shaped snuff bottle, with push in cap and spoon. It's not silver, some sort of nickel alloy like alpacca. Stones are irregular polished milky quartz and some kind of milky carnelian-ish. It came with a group of Indian silver most of which was late 19th or early 20th century. This looks much more like 70's onwards to me and the quality isn't there. It's 6cm tall and doesn't look like any of the usual region styles I'm used to - any thoughts on region and period?

 

Hi Ce. It is an Indian herb or pigment bottle, although some would use it for perfume.
It is not a snuff bottle. Similar ones with a straight applicator are for kohl.

These were hugely popular with Hippies in the 1960s, which is how many ended up in the West. But they are still being made, mostly as souvenirs and for export.
Yours looks like a relatively recent one, probably more recent than the 70s. The stones are agate. I agree, not high quality, more of a trinket.

 

Just learned something new again here.

 

Aha, thank you. I wasn't convinced it was Indian, something about the style looked atypical, but probably as I only really look at older items. The end is a tiny chisel tip, like a flat screwdriver. When you say pigments you mean as in cosmetics?

 

Yes, like portable kumkum or sindoor boxes.

 

Yes,me too. Ongoing learning here.!