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Snuff Box

ca. 1680 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
England (made)

This cowry shell box with silver mounts held snuff. Snuff is powdered tobacco fermented in salt, ground and scented and flavoured with spices such as cinnamon, cloves, lavender and bergamot. Snuff taking became popular in England with the Great Plague (1664-1665) as people thought it had valuable antiseptic properties. It was mainly a male habit, although Catherine de Medici started the fashion for snuff at the French court.

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 hope to own to a few small pieces of silver, perhaps a pair of shoe buckles, a snuff box and a watch.

Object details

Categories
Accessories
Containers
Metalwork
Caribbean
Object type
Snuff box
Materials and techniques
Silver mounts, with stag of cowry shell
Silver
Cowrie Shell
Brief description
Cowry shell mounted in silver, England, ca.1680, mark IH (unidentified)
Physical description
Foliated rim; hinged lid with revolving catch
Dimensions
  • Length: 3.25in
  • Width: 2.625in
Marks and inscriptions
  • Mark of IH (unidentified)
  • Engraved with the arms and crest of Butler, co. Chester andf Lancashire
Gallery label
  • SNUFF BOX Cowry shell mounted in silver English, late 17th century Mark IH, unidentified Engraved with the arms and crest of Butler, of Chester and Lancashire. Snuff is powdered tobacco fermented in salt, ground and scented and flavoured with spices such as cinnamon, cloves, lavender and bergamot. Snuff taking 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. Croft Lyons Bequest M.1023-1926(26/11/1996)
  • Text written about this object for 'Uncomfortable Truths / Traces of the Trade' gallery trails (Trail 1: 'Consuming the Black Atlantic'), 20 February - 31 December 2007. Helen Mears & Janet Browne. SNUFF BOX / Europeans first discovered tobacco through their encounters with the indigenous peoples of the Americas, who used it in barter and trade. Being a robust and adaptable crop, it was easily transferred to Britain's colonies in America and the West Indies in the early 17th century. There, thanks to the cheap labour of enslaved Africans, it brought economic success to the colonies. Bristol and, later, Glasgow became the centres for tobacco processing. Like sugar, tobacco was a luxury commodity when first imported into Europe in the 1620s, hence the fine craftsmanship of this snuff box and tobacco grater. Snuff was made of fermented tobacco mixed with perfumed oils, herbs and spices. It was sold in a compressed block to be grated into a fine powder. Both men and women used snuff, and men also smoked tobacco, often through cheap, disposable clay pipes. Believed to have 'pacifying' properties, tobacco was given to plantation workers and those who underwent the horrors of the Middle Passage. In Britain it remained strongly associated with black Africans. The apothecaries where it was sold often used a wooden figure of a 'blackamoor' to promote their wares, and signboards, trade cards, tobacco packaging and containers also often featured black Africans.'(20/02/2007)
Credit line
Lt. Col. G. B. Croft-Lyons Bequest
Object history
NB. While the term 'blackamoor' has been used in this record, it has since fallen from usage and is now considered offensive. The term is repeated in this record in its original historical context.

Bequest - Lt. Col. George Babbington Croft Lyons
Summary
This cowry shell box with silver mounts held snuff. Snuff is powdered tobacco fermented in salt, ground and scented and flavoured with spices such as cinnamon, cloves, lavender and bergamot. Snuff taking became popular in England with the Great Plague (1664-1665) as people thought it had valuable antiseptic properties. It was mainly a male habit, although Catherine de Medici started the fashion for snuff at the French court.

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 hope to own to a few small pieces of silver, perhaps a pair of shoe buckles, a snuff box and a watch.
Collection
Metalwork Collection
Accession number
M.1023-1926

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Record createdSeptember 10, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O104442/snuff-box-unknown/
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