Nor must we forget the amber snuff-box of which Sir Plume, in the “Rape of the Lock,” was so justly vain; in 1711 he “spoke, and rapped the box.” In 1733, Dodsley mentions boxes made of shell, mounted in gold and silver. Latterly we have made the acquaintance of several shell snuff-boxes; some of these were made of the tiger cowry, mounted in silver; of a small species of Turbo, cleaned and polished, and of harp shells, either mounted in silver or in baser metal. In different parts of the globe, tastes differ as to the materials of which snuff-boxes should be composed. A gentleman sent a piece of cannel coal from England to China, to be there carved by the ingenious Chinese into a snuff-box; this task was accomplished, and the box was shown in the Exhibition of 1851; also, in the Turkish department, a snuff-box of bituminous shale. Perhaps in the new Exhibition of 1862, there may be found a similar article, carved out of Gravesend flint, by natives of the Orange River Territory; or one of Suffolk coprolite, executed by rebellious sepoy women imprisoned in the hulks at Portsmouth.
In India, snuff-boxes are made of polished cocoa-nut shell, or of the seeds of Entada gigalobium, or pursætha; or in Nepal, of a small kind of calabash or gourd, apparently resembling those used for the same purpose, at the distance of 5,000 miles, in the South of Africa; excepting, that in some instances, the gourds of Nepal and of Scinde, are ornamented with mountings of gold or silver, a luxury in which the African does not indulge. In the same part of Africa, among the Zoolu Kaffirs, other kinds of snuff-boxes, of smaller size, are in common use. These are made of the seeds of a species of Zamia, ornamented with strings of small beads, and are worn suspended as earrings, from the ears of the natives.
In China, flasks are used, the form and size of a smelling bottle; these are of different kinds of material, some being cut out of rock crystal, and others made of porcelain and similar plastic substances. Snuff-takers are less numerous in China than smokers of tobacco; in powder, or as the Chinese say, “smoke for the nose,” is little used, except by the Mantchoo Tartars and Mongols, and among the Mandarins and lettered classes. The Tartars are real amateurs, and snuff is with them an object of the most important consideration. For the Chinese aristocracy, on the contrary, it is a mere luxury—a habit that they try to acquire—a whim. The custom of taking snuff was introduced into China by the old missionaries who resided at the Court. They used to get the snuff from Europe for themselves, and some of the Mandarins tried it, and found it good. By degrees the custom spread; people who wished to appear fashionable, liked to be taking this “smoke for the nose;” and Pekin is still par excellence, the locality of snuff-takers. The first dealers in it made immense fortunes. The French tobacco was the most esteemed; and as it happened at this time, that it had for a stamp the ancient emblem of the three fleur de lis, the mark has never been forgotten, and the three fleur de lis are still in Pekin, the only sign of a dealer in tobacco. The Chinese have now, for a long time, manufactured their own snuff, but they do not subject it to any fermentation, and it is not worth much. They merely pulverize the leaves, sift the powder till it is as fine as flour, and afterwards perfume it with flowers and essences. A curious method of snuffing, requiring neither box nor flask, is noticed in the “Voyages and Researches of the Adventure and Beagle.” At Otaheite, a substance, not unlike powdered rhubarb in appearance, but of a very pleasant fragrance, is rubbed on a piece of shark’s skin stretched on wood; and an old man, who had one of these snuff sticks in his possession, valued it so highly, that he could not be induced to part with it.
Boxes of very rude construction are made in France and Germany from birch bark, and sold in the streets of Paris and other continental cities, for about one halfpenny each. These have lately been seen in the shops of London tobacconists, under the name of “German boxes,” at about three times the above price. They are used abroad either for tobacco or snuff. Boxes are also made of horn, either black buffalo or transparent pressed horn—the latter at a much cheaper rate than the former. St. Helena contributed to the Great Exhibition snuff-boxes made from the willow under which the remains of Napoleon reposed, until their removal to France, and also from a willow planted by him at Longwood. Van Dieman’s Land contributed a box made from the tooth of the Sperm whale, as well as boxes from several native woods.
The Scotch snuff-boxes are justly celebrated for the perfection of their hinge, and close fitting cover. They were originally made at Lawrencekirk, but the manufacture has now spread to various parts of Scotland. The wood employed principally in the manufacture of these boxes is the sycamore (or plane of the Scotch). Mr. W. Chambers states, “that from a rough block of this wood, worth twenty-five shillings, snuff-boxes may be made to the value of three thousand pounds.”
The modus operandi in making these boxes is described as follows:—The box is made from a solid block of wood; the first operation consists in making a number of circular excavations in close contiguity to each other, by means of a centre-bit, or a drill running in a lathe; the interior is then squared out by means of gouges and chisels, and is afterwards smoothed with files and glass-paper. The celebrated hinge is formed partly out of the substance of the box, and partly out of that of the lid, the greatest attention being paid in its construction to the accurate fitting of the various parts one into the other. The box is lined in the inside with stout tin-foil, and is painted on the outside with several coats of colour, each of which is rubbed down smooth with glass-paper before the succeeding coat is applied. It is then ready to receive the various styles of ornament, which, in some cases, are produced by the hand of the artist, and in others by mechanical means. The most usual decoration consists of the tartan patterns, the component lines of which are drawn separately, by pens fixed in a ruling machine, on to the box itself, if bounded by planes or slightly curved surfaces; although such lines were also formerly drawn by means of a rose engine on circular boxes, it is now found a more convenient practice to rule the lines on paper, and then to attach the paper to the boxes. Another style of ornamentation, known as the Scoto-Russian, is of more recent introduction, and imitates, in a remote degree, the beautiful enamelled silver snuff-boxes for which Russia has long been famous. In these, the outside of the box is first covered with stout tin-foil, then completely painted all over the surface, and afterwards placed in the ruling machine, which traces upon it an intricate pattern of curved and straight lines, by means of a sharp flat tool. This instrument penetrates completely through the paint, but only scrapes the tin-foil, which is left very bright, and resembles inlaid silver. Several coats of copal varnish, each of which is successively polished down, are then applied to complete the snuff-box.
Box-wood, box-root, king-wood, ebony, and all kinds of hard wood; tin, brass, pewter, lead, silver, and all sorts of metals, are used for snuff-boxes, some of these cheap and rudely fashioned, others elaborate and expensive; some lined with tortoise-shell or horn, others with tin or lead-foil; and invention has been taxed to produce all kinds of ornamentation.
The practice of using snuff is said to have come into England after the Restoration, and to have been brought from France; but it is well known that the habit of mere snuff-taking did not originate with the introduction of tobacco, since there are recipes for making snuff from herbs in the oldest medicinal works extant. The use of tobacco snuff has been referred to the age of Catherine de Medicis, and it was recommended to her son, Charles IX., for his chronic headaches. Snuff-taking was formerly characteristic of the medical profession; and the gold-headed cane and gold snuff-box came to be the peculiar emblems of those who were learned in the healing art.
There are almost an endless variety of snuffs, as of noses, the purest kind being the “Scotch,” made either entirely from the stalks removed from the leaf in the course of its preparation for the cigar, or of the stalks with a small quantity of leaf. The “Welsh” and “Lundyfoot” are affirmed to owe their qualities chiefly, if not altogether, to the circumstance of their being dried almost to scorching; hence they have received the appellation of “high-dried” snuffs. The “Rappees” and other dark snuffs are manufactured from the darker and ranker leaves. Scenting, which the dark snuffs undergo, also furnish names and procure customers for numerous varieties. There is a story current, that the celebrated “Lundyfoot” had its origin in an accident, one version affirming that the man who was attending to the batches got drunk, neglected his duty, and made his master’s fortune; another, that an accidental fire did that for the firm which in the other case it is affirmed that an extra glass of grog accomplished. There is nothing surprising in this, and either narrative may be true; most inventions of this kind, like the claying of sugar, had their origin in accidents. A certain quantity of snuff, in the preparation, gets overdone in some of the steps of the process, at some time or other, and the firm resolves, perhaps, as it is not altogether useless, to try and realize something for it. The peculiarity just tickles certain noses, and for the future they wish for none but spoilt snuff; that which was at first spoilt accidentally, is now spoilt for the purpose, to supply the demands of the market at even a higher rate than ordinary, and the name of Lundyfoot becomes immortalized amongst old ladies through all succeeding generations. What other experiments and other accidents of over-salting or over-liming may have done, has not transpired; and who may be the next so to turn circumstances to account, that what would ordinarily be considered a misfortune, shall be turned to good fortune, time alone will reveal.
John Hardham was Garrick’s under-treasurer, and kept a snuff-shop in Fleet Street, at the sign of the Red Lion, where he contrived to get into high vogue, a particular poudre de tabac, still known as Hardham’s 37. Stevens, while daily visiting Johnson in Bolt Court, on the subject of their joint editorship of Shakespeare, never failed to replenish his box at the shop of a man who was for years the butt of his witticisms. Hardham died a bachelor, September 20, 1772, and bequeathed £6000—the savings of a busy life—for the benefit of the poor of his native city, Chester.