The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 18, 2025
Snuff Box
c. 1750–60
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
This small, elaborate box held snuff, a form of powdered tobacco that was inhaled in tiny amounts.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 gemstone mines, tobacco farms, or shops where these goods were made. 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.- Private Collection, H. Hawkins Esq.Private Collection, Edinburgh-2009Howard F. Stirn [1923-2016], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art2009-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).National Exhibition of Works in Leeds, 1868.
- {{cite web|title=Snuff Box|url=false|author=|year=c. 1750–60|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2009.64