Objects
Box- tobacco
Nicotine
Consumption
Tobacco consumption
[Taken from catalogue entry]
A brass snuff box, dated 1725. Oval, with one side engraved with a coat-of-arms and the name ‘John Robertson’, the other with another coat-of-arms and the name ‘John Pinder’ with date 1725. Also the initials TS on the rim.
Inscriptions:
[One side]John Pinder/York Owner/1725
[Other side] John Robertson
[Rim] T S
This piece has been engraved multiple times with different names, suggesting it was passed down to different owners, each of whom personalized the box. The box itself is thought to have been made in the seventeenth century, with the coats-of-arms also both being seventeenth century. The ‘John Pinder’ was therefore not the original owner.
The original method of taking tobacco was by sniffing snuff. The practice was taken from indigenous Americans and brought back to Europe by European explorers in the sixteenth century. At this time it was highly prized for both its medicinal and narcotic properties. In Britain it first gained social acceptance when Charles II brought the custom back from his exile in France. Despite the cost it became a popular habit for all social classes.
Snuff taking became widely popular and boxes to contain the snuff were made in their thousands. Decoration varied from the finest jeweled examples in gold and silver, to more modest boxes in carved or painted wood.
Production
Dates of Production: from c. 1650
to c. 1699
Consumer
John Pinder
male
Owner
Consumption
1725
York, Yorkshire, England
Materials
Metal- brass
Metal- latten
Museological Details
Snuff box
Crab Tree Farm
D.O.M/80
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