Dated 1676 Horn and Cedar Tobacco Box

Dated 1676 Horn and Cedar Tobacco Box.

Superb Early and Rare Tobacco Box, Dated 1676 and initialed M S with the inscription “IT IS A FRIEND TO WHOM I LEND”  made from Cedar and Horn with Bone inlay. The horn held in place with Blackthorn Prickets. This is the forth and earliest example of these boxes I have owned. Beautifully made, this one is in exceptional untouched condition and of superb colour and patination. The piece below tells you a little about the fascinating story behind these boxes.

Literature:
E.H.Pinto in his book‘ Treen and Other Wooden bygones’ states that these oval cedar wood boxes rimmed in horn and inlaid with bone…‘belong to a small and rare English group which all appear to have been made by one man between 1680 and 1710. They bear varied, but attractive inscriptions and dates; this one(in his collection) proclaims ‘for you the best is not too good 1706’’ if a box was good for keeping the pipe tobacco fresh it would sometimes also be used for snuff and they were sold by tobacconists for either purpose according to choice. It could also have been treated as a table box to be passed along to fill pipes at convivial functions. They were sometimes used for a free dip of tobacco on the counter of a tobacconist's shop, or at an inn where the landlord would keep the snuff freshly rasped, or the tobacco nicely moist, on a daily basis. 
Rare and early survivors indeed!!

Dimensions

Price

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Condition report