ARTIFACT IMAGE
Snuff Box Item Info
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- Title:
- Snuff Box
- Date:
- 19th century
- Description:
- Jeweled metal snuffbox, possibly enamel or Vernis-Martin lacquerwork depicting a star or sun pattern.
- Marks/Inscriptions :
- N/A
- Geographies:
- North and Central America;United States;Pennsylvania
- Material:
- metal, lacquer, gems
- Provenance:
- Donated to the FHL by Ella K. Barnard
- Quaker connection:
- Ella Kent Bernard
- Object Story, Consumption and Use:
- This metal and jeweled snuff box is 19th century, round, and varnished in possibly enamel or Vernis-Martin, a European imitation lacquer intended to resemble the Japanese lacquerwork, urushi. Such a style was frequently used for personal items, such as fans or snuffboxes. Loaned to the FHL by quakeress Ella K. Barnard, who also donated a large number of personal items to the objects collection, the box may have origins in Pennsylvania or North and Central America broadly. Despite the Quaker and Pennsylvanian associations of this snuffbox, there's a particularly long and gendered history of snuff and the decorative arts of Asia. Chinoiserie and other East Asian inspired arts, including imitation lacquerware, were largely associated with women, combining elements of the foreign and delicate to color ladies dressing rooms and other women-only spaces (Lasser). Presently, the snuffbox remains ever-glossy, with minimal chipping after a near two centuries, retaining its lustre and colorfulness. Snuff is the “powdered preparation of tobacco” intended to be inhaled through the nose or “dipped” (rubbed on teeth and gums). Tobacco was often ground, fermented, and perfumed with flora such as rose, lavender, clove, jasmine, etc. Though originating in Central and South America, snuff quickly spread to the European world through trade and colonization. In these early cultures, snuff was and believed to have healing properties, preventing the common cold and other ailments. In Great Britain, the practice of snuff-taking quickly became gendered in its symbolism. Snuff defined a culture of elegance, as engaging in snuff-taking signaled to other Brits one's values and membership in polite society (Katz). As such, a defined etiquette began to grow around the sharing and consumption of snuff. Through popular media, however, snuff-taking transformed into something symbolic of gender disorder, “emasculating” the men of Britain (Katz) and largely symbolizing “female depravity” in its frenzied consumption. This societal disgrace into politeness was seen as a far cry from the rogueish, masculine ways of a former Britain and altered the pre-colonial reputation of snuff as medicinal.
- Research Sources:
- 1) Lasser, Ethan W. “Chapter 1: Reading Japanned Furniture.” In Objects, Audiences, and Literatures: Alternative Narratives in the History of Design, edited by David Raizman and Carma R. Gorman, 1–27. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 2) May Katz, Anna. 2025. “‘The Social Pinch’: The Visual and Gendered World of Snuff-Taking Celebrated and Satirised, 1660–1832.” History of European Ideas 51 (6): 1203–22. doi:10.1080/01916599.2024.2446270.
- Type:
- Image;StillImage
- Format:
- image/jpg
- Accession Number:
- SC-FHL-R-0792
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Snuff Box", From Local to Global - Consumption and the Quaker Body, Swarthmore College, https://swat-ds.github.io/material-culture/material-culture/items/mc016.html