Snuff, a smokeless tobacco made from ground or pulverized tobacco leaves, delivers a swift hit of nicotine when "snuffed" or inhaled through the nose. Commonly used in Europe by the 17th century, snuff became popular in southern Africa 100 years later. The two snuff containers exhibited here might seem to have little in common. Yet whether made of gold nearly hidden under layers of bright blue enamel and a diamond-encrusted porcelain plaque, or formed from a natural gourd embellished with pyramidal patterns created from shiny brass and dull iron wires, each vessel expresses the social value of the snuff it once contained. German-born Christian Burchard has been working from his studio in Oregon since the early 1980s. Like the Zulu snuff container, his White Basket is made from an indigenous organic product-in this case an evergreen tree called Madrone. However, the basket's designation 377-C indicates that the work is the product of serial experimentation undertaken without utility in mind.