Full title: A Chinese carved realgar glass snuff bottle, Imperial Glassworks, Beijing, 1730-1840------- Description: H.: 7,1 cm  Prov.:- The Hildegard Schonfeld Collection, Christie's, New York, March 21, 2013, lot 1098 (Sold: USD 4.375) - The Martin Schoen Colletion; acquired from Belle Schoen, New York, 1987  Realgar is a toxic arsenic compound which tends to disintegrate to a powder when exposed to air and moisture, which is why imitation-realgar glassware became popular for the production of snuff bottles starting from the eighteenth century.