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Snuff box
unknown - Enlarge image
Snuff box
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
France (made) - Date:
1870-1880 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Wood, painted, with brass stringing, brass nails in sole and heel, brass and mother-of-pearl buttons
- Credit Line:
Given by Messrs Harrods, Ltd.
- Museum number:
T.1543-1913
- Gallery location:
Fashion, room 40, case CA4
Small containers for keeping snuff were often decorative or made as novelties, probably as gifts. Snuff boxes in the form of boots or shoes were made throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and this one is in the shape of a fashionable Victorian lady’s button boot of the 1860s, detailed with metal studs. The top of the boot is hollowed out to form the container.
Shoes and boots are traditionally associated with good luck. Snuff is a form of ground tobacco which was sniffed through the nose rather than smoked in a pipe. Decorative snuff boxes would be put on the table at social gatherings and passed around.
