Hannah Lim scales the snuff bottle into two-handed sculptures that reclaim Chinoiserie

Snuff bottles were 17th-century China's portable luxury: a couple of inches across, scooped with a tiny spoon fixed to the lid, coveted by the affluent. Europe's Chinoiserie had long mimicked Asian motifs for Western buyers, and Lim, British-Singaporean, wanted to rework that exchange in a more conscientious way.

Take a two-inch jewel-like snuff bottle and rebuild it several times taller — too big for one hand — turning Europe's Chinoiserie borrowing into conscious reclamation.

She sculpts in polymer clay and Jesmonite, finished with chalk, acrylic paint and gloss. Each bottle carries small painted or relief portraits of animals and imaginary creatures — her recent series draws on the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the ancient Chinese account of 550-plus mountains and 300 waterways — and every lid hides a hanging charm, a nod to the tiny spoon on the original.

Solo exhibition Reimaginings runs at the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath through 14 November 2026; works show with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in Paris, and a new public artwork is slated for Paddington, London.

The snuff bottle was China's 17th-century answer to portable luxury: a container for scented powdered tobacco, a couple of inches across so it could be tucked away, its contents scooped with a tiny spoon fixed to the lid. Hannah Lim, a London-based artist of British-Singaporean heritage, kept meeting them in UK museum collections — ornate, varied, and products of the same Chinoiserie wave in which European producers mimicked Chinese and other Asian motifs for a Western market. 'In my own work, I attempt to reclaim and re-imagine this practice in a more conscientious way,' she says.

Her move is scale. A typical snuff bottle is diminutive and jewel-like; Lim's are several inches tall and usually need to be held with both hands, so the pocket treasure becomes a sculpture you have to engage with. She builds them from polymer clay and Jesmonite, then applies chalk, acrylic paint and gloss, finishing each with painted or relief portraits of animals and imaginary creatures. The recent series interprets the Classic of Mountains and Seas, using its 'enchanting alchemic descriptions' of creatures as inspiration.

The detail that carries the argument is hidden: every one of her snuff bottles has a hanging charm concealed in its lid, referencing the tiny spoon on traditional snuff bottles. Lim keeps pushing the work — recent sculptures like Orchid Table add laser-cut elements, she is experimenting with metal, and she makes bespoke frames extending her paintings. Her solo show Reimaginings runs at Bath's Museum of East Asian Art through 14 November 2026, with works also at Cynthia Corbett Gallery in Paris and a public artwork coming to Paddington, London.

It answers a colonial-era design exchange in the object's own language — craft, detail, function — instead of a think piece.

The scale flip is one legible idea: a bottle you tuck away becomes a two-handed sculpture you must hold, and the shift alone restates who the object belongs to.

The hidden charm in every lid ties the new work to the original's function, giving the reclamation a factual anchor rather than a gesture.

It is verifiable and current: a museum solo show in Bath, a Paris gallery showing and a London public artwork commission.

When an aesthetic was borrowed badly the first time, the rebuttal can keep the borrowing but change the terms: scale it up, keep the craft details, and make the copy own its sources.

Lim is continuing to experiment with scale and materials, especially metal, and frequently makes bespoke frames that serve as extensions of her paintings, with plans to incorporate motifs onto the frames themselves. Reimaginings runs at the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath through 14 November 2026; her works show with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in Paris later this month, and the Paddington public artwork lands later in the year.