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Details / Information for Snuff Box with Clock

Snuff Box with Clock

c. 1750
Measurements
Overall: 5.1 x 5.1 cm (2 x 2 in.)
Credit Line
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

During the 1700s, snuff boxes, jewelry, and watch cases were often made in the same workshops, creating multifunctional items such as this time-keeping snuff box.

Description

Luxurious personal objects, like this snuff box, were an essential part of a privileged wardrobe during the 1700s and early 1800s, emphasizing their owner’s refinement and wealth. Their glittering surfaces, however, disguised a system based on the labor and suffering of enslaved or indentured people, whether in gold or stone mines, tobacco farms, or shops where these goods were made. This small, elaborate box held snuff, a form of powdered tobacco that was inhaled in tiny amounts. Like cotton, sugar, and tea, snuff came from British colonies in America, India, and the Caribbean, where enslaved people were exploited to grow these crops under extremely harsh conditions. Slavery was not abolished in much of the British Empire until 1833. Britain and other European nations continued to pursue colonialism with a sense of superiority that found its way into all aspects of life, including decorative objects glorifying their conquests.
An octagonal gold and agate snuff box features a hinged lid held open. Dark gray agate panels with wavy white bands line the sides, encased in ornate gold scrollwork and twisted columns. On the top horizontal surface, a white enamel dial displays black Roman and Arabic numerals under glass. The polished gold interior of the lid reflects the dial, emphasizing the contrast between the dark patterned stone and the gleaming metal structure.

Snuff Box with Clock

c. 1750

England, London

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