Antique Snuff Boxes: An Expert Guide
Snuff is a type of finely ground, or powdered, tobacco that is sniffed (snuffed) through the nose. It has been used for centuries as a form of nicotine delivery as well as a social ritual.
Tobacco use was first witnessed by Europeans in 1493 when a friar called Ramón Pané that came with Christopher Columbus’s expedition saw indigenous people of South America using crushed and dried tobacco leaves for medicinal and spiritual purposes.
The first recorded European use of snuff was by the Spanish in the late sixteenth century and by the seventeenth century was in common use across Europe.
Snuff was used primarily by the wealthy, aristocratic classes, who would take it in private or at social gatherings. Snuff boxes became popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a way to store and display snuff, and often became prized possessions in their own right.
They are found in two sizes, larger table-top boxes that were for shared use, and smaller pocket boxes for individual use. All have tight fitting lids to keep the snuff dry and the rich aromas contained.
As snuff became ever popular amongst the wealthy elite, ornate snuff boxes were made to reflect the social standing of the consumer, as well as the changing tastes and cultural influences of the time.
They were made in a variety of materials:
Gold Snuff Boxes
A poem by Karel van Mander published in 1665 in Holland provides the first recorded evidence of a gold snuff box. While snuff was already popular in countries such as Spain and Italy by this date, simpler materials like ivory, brass and horn were normally used for boxes.
It was not Holland however that first began with the production of gold snuff boxes but rather France with their grand Parisian boîtes à portrait, or portrait box, examples of which records exist from 1668. Though they were undoubtably in use before this date.
Gold snuff boxes were made outside of France in other countries such as Austria, Switzerland and Russia but most closely resemble the Parisian style. In England the first mention of this type of box is in 1681 in the London Gazette of 28th July.
Many were engraved, enamelled, or inset with hardstones and precious gems, while others could be plain and simple.
The marks found on snuff boxes in Europe during the eighteenth century was essentially the same whether they were gold or silver, though in England these gold boxes are rarely marked.
Silver Snuff Boxes
Silver snuff boxes developed in most European countries, and while they did exist prior, there is scant evidence of the material being used before the early eighteenth century.
Like gold boxes, silver was first used by the French, which found the metal to be favourable due to its durability, and ability to be easily worked.
These early silver boxes were typically made in a rectangular shape with a hinged lid, and were often decorated with intricate engravings, embossed designs, and enamel work that reflected the prevailing styles of the time, such as Rococo and Neoclassical.
The metal rapidly found popularity across Europe in countries such England (which also produced ones in Old Sheffield Plate) and its colonies, as well as France, Scandinavia and Russia.
Many also had gilded interiors and Russian examples can have niello decoration.
In England, and France, the hallmarking of boxes was strictly adhered too, while in other countries it could be erratic.
They were often given as gifts to mark special occasions such as weddings and graduations, and were considered a symbol of wealth and status. Many famous historical figures, including Napoleon Bonaparte, owned and used silver snuff boxes.
Brass and Other Base-Metal Snuff Boxes
Towards the end of the seventeenth century base-metal snuff boxes began to appear first in Holland and then in England. These were often brass or copper oval or polygonal boxes engraved with biblical or pastoral scenes.
After 1750 rectangular boxes with stamped decoration became more popular, which is a style that is also commonly seen in tobacco boxes.
In England the earliest recoded use is in 1680 in Sheffield by the Cutler’s Company. These boxes were made of iron with horn lids. In 1698 brass boxes were being advertised.
By the late eighteenth century English brass boxes are similar to their oval and oblong silver counterparts and seldom decorated with more than the name of the owner.
At the end of the seventeenth century steel was also found to be a favoured material with its hardness being suitable for the replication of the precise work found on gold boxes.
In eighteenth century Paris, copper boxes were made by an unrecorded jeweller with the same quality as a goldsmith’s work and are known as boîtes à Pomponne after the hotel in which they were made.
Pewter, from around 1775, was the most frequently used used base metal for snuff boxes. Other metals used were alloys like pinchbeck and Britannia metal.
Porcelain Snuff Boxes
These boxes were often decorated with intricate scenes, portraits, or landscapes and were made by well-known porcelain factories such as Meissen, Sèvres, and Saint-Cloud.
They were commonly mounted with copper-gilt, silver and silver-gilt rims. Gold mounts can be found on Meissen examples, but no known gold-rimmed French examples have been found.
The mounts are almost always unmarked, with the exception of some dated French examples.
While their shapes largely followed the designs of metal boxes, their sides tend to be somewhat higher. This provided more space for the painted decoration, in addition to the lid or cover.
While porcelain snuff boxes were made in great quantities throughout Europe, they were not produced in great quantities in England. Instead enamel boxes manufactured in South Staffordshire were favoured.
Enamel Snuff Boxes
The development of enamelled copper snuff boxes across Europe was an economic solution to the cost and difficulty of imitating expensive Chinese porcelain, which was only just being effectively reproduced by Meissen in the early 18th century.
These boxes could be made cheaply, and in quantity, applied with a coat of plain white enamel, and then left to be decorated quickly to suit the current fashions of the market or individual purchaser, which often imitated porcelain examples.
The main centre of production during the first half of the 18th century was in the Berlin workshop of Pierre Fromery, and his son Alexander. The production of enamelled copper boxes in Germany became commercially unviable by 1770, being eclipsed by porcelain examples, which was now widely and inexpensively available.
As mentioned above, enamel boxes had a firm footing in England with their official history beginning with the establishment of York House at Battersea in 1753. However there is evidence that they were being made in the early part of the 18th century.
Mountings on English enamel boxes tend to be either gilded copper or alloys such as bath metal and pinchbeck.
Enamel was often used to depict scenes from nature, historical events, or portraits of famous people.
Wood Snuff Boxes
Before the use of silver, porcelain, or other materials, wood was undoubtably a material used for making simple snuff boxes. However the bulk of wooden snuff boxes found nowadays date from only the end of the eighteenth century onwards.
As snuff-taking became more popular, wooden snuff boxes became more elaborate in their designs and construction. Woodworkers began to experiment with more intricate and complex designs, carving and inlaying wood with other materials such as ivory, mother of pearl, and bone.
One of the most popular types of wooden snuff boxes was the treen snuff box, which was made from a single piece of wood, usually turned on a lathe, and then carved or decorated with a variety of designs.
As wood could be softened and moulded by heat, as well as easily carved, it was the most used material for novelty boxes in various shapes like books, shoes, pistols and figures. As such, softer fruitwoods were often used to make these boxes.
In the first half of the nineteenth century the most well known wooden boxes in Britain were made in Mauchline, Scotland of plane, elm or pine. Slightly later in the 19th century boxes made using stickwork or inlaid turnery, otherwise known as Tunbridge Ware became very popular, with beech and sycamore being used.
Other commonly used woods were oak, mahogany, walnut and rosewood, as well as lignum vitae.
Ivory, Tortoiseshell & Horn Snuff Boxes
As horn was an easily obtainable material from local butchers, and thus inexpensive, it was one of the most popular materials used for early snuff boxes.
Tortoiseshell snuff boxes were made from the shell of the hawksbill turtle, a species of turtle found in the tropics. A demand which sadly nearly drove the species to extinction. The shell was sliced into thin sheets and used to cover the box, creating a beautiful and unique pattern.
Ivory snuff boxes were made from the tusks of elephants, walruses, or whales and were popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and were often intricately carved and decorated with scenes from nature, portraits, or historical events.
The main characteristic that these three materials shared was their pliability to able to be pressed, moulded or carved using either heat or solvents.
Hardstone Snuff Boxes
While boxes made of metal and set with hardstones were in use in England at the end of the seventeenth century, examples carved entirely of hardstone did not become common until around 1720.
These stones were commercially mined in Germany and included rock crystal, aventurine, carnelian, agate, bloodstone, jasper, onyx, heliotrope, puddingstone, chrysoprase and petrified wood. In addition malachite, amethyst and lapis lazuli were also often used.
In England and Germany, boxes carved from a single stone with silver or gold rims were not unusual throughout the eighteenth century.
Hardstone boxes are almost never marked. Metal snuff box rims were exempt from assaying, or marking, in England due to a regulation of 1739. In France, since 1679, goldsmiths were allowed not to stamp any small, delicate pieces of gold or silver that might be ruined marks.
Lacquer Snuff Boxes
Lacquer is a resinous material that is made from the sap of certain trees, and has been used in Asia for centuries to create decorative objects.
As the Dutch East India Company brought wondrous new items back to Europe from the East such as porcelain from China and gold painted lacquer screens from Japan so did the fashion to own such items increase.
Japan was mostly closed off to foreigners at the time with restrictive trade policies, few items were allowed to leave the country to satiate European desires.
The Dutch were the first to attempt to replicate the lacquer-making process, but it wasn’t until the late seventeenth century that the technique of making European-style lacquer was developed that also became known as japanning.
European-style lacquer differed from Asian lacquer in several ways. For example, European lacquer was made using a variety of materials, including shellac, gum arabic, and varnish, whereas Asian lacquer was made using the sap of the lacquer tree.
European lacquer was also often applied to a base of papier-mâché, whereas Asian lacquer was applied to a base of wood.
The popularity of snuff declined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the rise of smoking and the waning prestige of snuff-taking. Today, snuff is still used in some cultures, but it is a relatively niche product compared to its widespread popularity in the past. Not to mention the heightened awareness of health dangers of tobacco use.
Collecting snuff boxes covers a vast and varied range of examples that represents the social and economic standing of tobacco in European society. By researching, setting a budget, focusing on a specialty, and buying from reputable dealers and auction houses, you can start a collection of these beautiful and historic items.
Title image credit: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Walters Art Museum , Cleveland Museum of Art, Rijksmuseum made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Here at iValuations you’ll find experts in over 50 categories of art, antiques and collectibles that are waiting to give impartial professional, affordable and in-depth valuation reports in a timeous and easy to use manner.
