Among the fashionable elite, a complex set of steps accompanied the practice of taking snuff:\u00a0 tapping the box three times to settle the tobacco, offering snuff to the assembled company, taking a pinch from a tiny spoon or from the back of the hand and delicately dabbing the dribbling nose with a coloured handkerchief (coloured so as to hide the ugly tobacco stains).<\/p>\n
The ease with which this ritual was accomplished signalled the refinement of the snuff-taker. Even more important was the box the snuffer flourished \u2013 nothing said \u2018I\u2019m filthy rich\u2019 quite like producing a gold box encrusted with diamonds from your pocket.<\/p>\n
For the nobility, different outfits, occasions, or seasons all demanded different boxes. In his book, Kenneth Blakemore describes the snuff box collection of Madame de Pompadour \u2013 chief mistress of King Louis XV of France, who owned hundreds of examples in ivory, enamel, tortoiseshell, and gold-mounted malachite, and boxes lavished with dragons and butterflies.<\/p>\n
As with other imported luxuries, like sugar and tea, the use of tobacco filtered down to the rest of society. Snuff boxes were made in papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9, horn, ceramic<\/a> and a huge range of other more affordable materials. Even a farm labourer might carry a pinch of snuff in a small wooden box in his waistcoat.<\/p>\n Today these humble wooden boxes can be sought after by collectors, says Sally Honey, a dealer who specialises in treen at Opus Antiques: \u2018Some wooden boxes were professionally made, but others you imagine being carved by candlelight in a little cottage. There\u2019s an incredible range of sizes, styles and novelties made in wood. We see shoes most often, which symbolised luck, and much more rarely objects like clocks, chests of drawers, hats and purses. Bellows might be given as love tokens \u2013 to warm the heart. Animals like horses, monkeys, lions, frogs and fish are not so easy to come by, and so make a lot more money. Comical little men carved from coquilla nuts are also very desirable. They have so much personality.\u2019<\/p>\n![\""misers\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2023\/03\/misers-snuff-box-1-445cd8c.jpeg?quality=90&resize=556%2C723"\" "\\"\"misers\\"")
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