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Snuff box

Snuff box

  • Place of origin:

    France (made)

  • Date:

    1790-1805 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Maple or birch, turned, steamed and decorated with relief decoration formed in a press

  • Museum number:

    1638:1,2-1903

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

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Snuff, or powdered tobacco, was widely popular throughout Europe from the 17th century. Small boxes to contain the powder were made in their thousands, from the most luxurious to the everyday. This box is of a type that was produced in France by a semi-industrial process in the early 19th century. Boxes were turned out of maple or burr birch, and then steamed to soften them. They were then put into screw presses where finely worked metal dies stamped scenes or motifs into them.

Most of the scenes used to decorate the boxes related to current topical events. This scene, titled 'LARRIVEE DANS LISLE DE SCIOTO' [The Arrival in the Island of Scioto] celebrates the hopes of French investors who bought land in Ohio in the United States of America from the Compagnie du Scioto. They arrived in the United States to find that the promised city in the region of the Scioto river did not exist.

Physical description

A circular snuffbox with lift-off lid, of maple or birch, lined with tortoiseshell. The box and lid are turned, the wood then steamed and the lid formed in a press with a scene of ships entering port and the inscription 'ARRIVEE DANS LISLE DE SCIOTO'.

Place of Origin

France (made)

Date

1790-1805 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Maple or birch, turned, steamed and decorated with relief decoration formed in a press

Marks and inscriptions

ARRIVEE DANS LISLE DE SCIOTO The arrival in the island of Scioto

Dimensions

Diameter: 8 cm, Height: 2.2 cm

Historical context note

The scene on this snuffbox must relate in some way to the land swindle perpetrated by the Compagnie du Scioto, which sold prosepects in land in Ohio to French investors in the period from 1787 until the collapse of the company in 1790. There were at least two subsequent attempts to revive the company and in 1792 218 investors arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, to find that no land was allocated to them. However, during the 1790s, the Ohio Company did sell land to the settlers and in 1798 Congress granted land to the community (the French Grant), close to the Scioto river. Five hundred settlers arruved in 1800 and in 1803 the Company founded the city of Worthington, Ohio.

Descriptive line

Circular snuffbox, with lift-off lid, made in birch or maple, steamed, the lid decorated with a scene of ships in a bay, below a tower, with the incription 'ARRIVEE DANS LISLE DE SCIOTO'

Materials

Maple; Birch

Techniques

Turning; Pressing

Subjects depicted

Ships

Categories

Personal accessories

Production Type

Mass produced

Collection code

FWK

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Qr_O85308
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