Silver featured in all aspects of a gentleman’s daily life, from the morning toilet to an evening at his club. Personal silver was commonly engraved with armorials or a crest, a name or initials. The less affluent would aspire to a few small pieces of silver, perhaps a pair of shoe buckles, a snuff box and a watch.

Snuff is powdered tobacco fermented in salt, ground and scented and flavoured with spices such as cinnamon, cloves, lavender and bergamot. Snuff taking became established in England with the Great Plague as it was thought to have valuable antiseptic properties. It was mainly a male habit, although Catherine de Medici started the fashion for snuff at the French court.

A snuff box was a small box, usually having a hinged lid, for holding snuff (pulverised tobacco). The bottom part is usually made in one piece, the lid being attached by means of a hinged metal frame fitted to both parts. Some examples have two compartments, with a hinged lid at the top and another at the bottom. Decoration included engraving, chasing, embossing, engine turning or enamelling, setting with gemstones or ornate cast lids. The box is usually rectangular, but there are also many in a vast variety of fanciful shapes.