The present lot may be compared with the bright yellow brocade Mongolian snuff bottle pouch applied with brocade strips illustrated by Patricia Berger and Terese Tse Bartholomew in the exhibition catalogue "Mongolia. The Legacy of Chinggis Khan”, Thames and Hudson, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, London, 1995, pp 144-145. In the catalogue, the authors write that snuff bottles and pouches were considered essential objects in Mongolia and were worn doubled over the sashes around their waists. Unlike the smaller kidney-shaped gathered Chinese pouches, Mongolian snuff bottle pouches were larger and rectangular in form with an open slit down the middle. The habit of taking snuff was introduced to Mongolia from China in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was originally introduced to China by European missionaries and became fashionable at the Qing court in the Qianlong period (1736-95). The present lot may also be compared to two further rectangular Mongolian snuff bottle pouches in the Bogdo Khan Palace Museum, Ulan Bator, illustrated by N.Tsultem in Mongolian Arts and Crafts, Ulan Bator, 1987, no. 122.