Page 6 - June 27, 2017 Snuff Bottles, San Francisco2017

SYLVIA H. GOTTLIEB
(1920 – 2008)

Sylvia Hoffman, my mother, was born in the Bronx, New York City. She was
first generation American and the first woman in her family to go to college.
Graduating from Hunter College in 1940 with a degree in Biology, mother
began her career as a lab technician and advanced to become supervisor of
a laboratory in New York City until she had children.

Sylvia married at the age of 24 to my father, Leonard H. Gottlieb, a Sergeant
in the United States Army stationed at Camp Edwards, on Cape Cod, Mas-
sachusetts.

She enjoyed painting and worked in oils, watercolors and pastels. Her interest
in art gradually became a lifelong passion. For years we lived in Stuyvesant
Town in Manhattan, an easy subway ride to the Museum of Natural History,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, the art galleries in the East
Village and Guggenheim Museum. There were times when I would have pre-
ferred to visit Yankee Stadium, but that wasn’t on the agenda.

Sylvia eventually stopped painting and started collecting. Her collection
became the SHG Gallery in the family’s basement and offered graphics -
etchings, lithographs, and an occasional poster. Mother would not only sell
the pieces, but visited client’s homes to offer advice on framing and interior
decoration.

My parents made their first trip to Europe in 1963. From then on they visited
almost every European country, as well as Central and South America and
the Far East. My mother’s travels to East Asia undoubtedly played a role in
her interest in Asian art. My parents were active members of the International
Chinese Snuff Bottle Society. They attended conventions held in the United
States and overseas. My mother also attended every available lecture to
broaden her knowledge on snuff bottles.

After my father’s death in 1987, my mother stopped traveling. She stopped
collecting after the death of my younger sister in 2003.

Sylvia kept almost every single piece of paper and receipt for every snuff
bottle she purchased. In her letter to me about dealing with her snuff bottle
collection upon her death, she wrote: “[The bottles] are more than a mere
“collection” …… They represent the entree into antiquity, understanding
Chinese history, the arts, mineralogy, folk lore, symbolism, religion, language,
calligraphy and more to enrich your life -- if that is your desire”.

It is my mother’s wish that her snuff bottles find a home with collectors who
appreciate them and derive much pleasure from the bottles that once she
loved.

Ellen Gottlieb Lerman
2017

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