A snuffer tray held snuffers - scissor-like implements that trimmed the wick of a burning candle. A snuffer tray was a convenient stand on which to rest a pair of snuffers grubby with wax and soot. Unknown in English inventories before the mid-sixteenth-century, they are recorded frequently thereafter, when they are called 'slices' or 'pans'. The eight-sided form of this tray, with a spatula-shaped handle, is typical of early-eighteenth-century examples, although this one lacks feet. The London diarist Samuel Pepys noted in a 1667 diary entry that 'this night comes home my new silver snuff dish which I do give myself for my closet', which suggests trays could be purchased separately from snuffers. Certainly the manufacture of trays and snuffers appears to have been the work of different specialist silversmiths as the maker's mark on surviving pairs often differs.