Beautiful art objects: 18th century tobacco.

Polished English agate snuff box (above). 

with fine, 10-carat gold foliage, c1730

1st Dibs

Smoking became normal at every level of British society consumed tobacco in greater quantities from the C17th on. Originally imported from the slave plantations in the Americas, by the middle of the C17th the herba nicotiana-tobacco plant was being also being grown commercially in Europe. Angela McShane showed that this addictive product was profitable, its trade was monopolistic and rife with crime and controversy. Debates raged in the press over tobacco’s effects.

In Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604), King James I dis­couraged smoking, warn­ing that it caused cancer but noted that elite men found life as a non-smoker lonely. In 1619 a procl­amation attempted to ban smoking from alehouses, while in the 1620s taxes were imposed to make tobacco VERY expensive. Yet by the 1630s the industry was too valuable for the government to limit. Key Parliamentarians were developing interests in over­seas plantations.

As Britain got hooked on tobacco, smoking paraphernalia cropped up quickly. Items such as tobacco boxes provide an insight into the anxieties and aspirations of the early modern psyche. Even the clay pipe, light and tobacco could be bought in an ale-house, tavern or coffee house. Personalised tobacco boxes soon became an indis­pen­s­­able accessory for the British smoker. They were noted in printed literature from the early C17th and later in wills.

Smoking and snuffing developed in own elaborate ritual that involved sharing and borrowing. Socialised smoking in alehouses became common but, by the late 1600s, lighting a pipe with a friend at home had also became a ritualised social practice. This soc­iable smoking helped friends build up a close, mutual familiarity.

Anxieties around loss did not end with the obligation to share in convivial company: tobacco boxes were the first thing thieves looked for, as criminal court records stated. Plus there was another sign: many men wore their tobacco box very close to the body. In 1711 a man advertised for his lost ivory-enamel snuff box offering half a guinea reward!

Even items bought off the shelf, complete with general messages, were then personalised with  inscriptions & initials. Once pers­onalised, even the humblest boxes revealed a great deal about an owner’s life, personality, interests, social relationships and trade. A Scottish black-smith had his name, trade and town proudly inscribed on his 1726 tobacco box, celebrating his apprentice­ship's end. 

Like alcohol, tobacco developed its own literary presence. There were many celebrity smokers, including philosopher Thomas Hobbes and scientist Isaac Newton who argued that smoking helped their creativity. The poet George Daniel declared tobacco a Nursing Fame, while Samuel Rowlands needed a continuous supply of tobacco to perfume his writing brain. Book-shaped boxes became especially popular in the C18th, drawing attention to their owners’ bookish interests or to their profession. In 1725 a lawyer and the auditor for Norwich Cathedral, had a brass box that was shaped like a book with elaborate calligraphy on the covers. 

Dutch silver book-shaped tobacco box and cover  

Marks of schoonhoven, c1793

Boxes were often decorated in ways that advertised their owner’s social status, especially a coat of arms. During the herald’s visit to London in 1687, eight men brought silver tobacco boxes as evidence of their family’s standing. Those who could only aspire to arms would make up a design and have it applied to tob­ac­co boxes.

And boxes were ideal for the display of royal arms or portraits that expressed a smoker’s allegiances. To facilitate loyal smoking, the printmaker Peter Stent sold small prints of royalty and other nobility to adorn tobacco boxes. In celebration of Charles II’s coronation in 1661, for example, a special image was developed. 

Silver tobacco box, oval and with hinged lids.  
Francis Harache, London c1755,  
crest and arms of William Wither.

Horn or tortoiseshell boxes began to be moulded over portrait medals, while boxes of every quality were decorated with the royal arms or heads. Or referencing the government of the day. And some boxes were made to encourage dis­loy­alty. In 1718, after the acc­es­sion of the unpopular King George I, an obscene snuff box reflecting on the king was sold openly from shops at the Royal Exchange.

Though the Church never expressly encouraged tobacco, some tobacco boxes lauded the anxieties of Protestantism over the impermanence of human life and the uncert­ainty of salvation. One brass box was inscribed on one side with a relevant verse from Proverbs. The in­scription emphasised the comfort of family and the simple pleasures of a happy Protestant life. At 18 John Pinder attended Cambridge then started his cler­ical career as a deacon in York. He celeb­rated his homecoming by adding the date, name and diocese on a secondhand brass tobacco box.

Personal tobacco boxes could be used as a mirror, a perpetual cal­endar, for carrying letters. Sometimes they were totally readapted eg brass boxes could be converted into a pounce pot used by callig­raphers to dry ink. Tobacco boxes were also family heirlooms and memorials. In 1713, Henry Monck presented his well-known horn box, bought at the local Horn Fair, to the members of the convivial Past Overseers Society, of which he was a founder. He shared its contents with co-members at every tavern meeting.

Tortoiseshell double pipe case with silver mounts, 

and snuff box early C18th, 24 cm.  

Christie’s Images 2010

The stopper/rammer was another essential piece of equipment, coming in a variety of materials and often taking a figurative form of rel­evance to their original owner. And the tobacco pipe case which was smoker’s pocket-case for holding a short meerschaum or clay pipe. Remember the clay tobacco pipe was popular for a couple of centuries, so many of the pipe cases were wonderful examples of crafts­manship, made from fruitwood, silver, tortoiseshell, boxwood or even leath­er. By the late C18th, ALL tobacco equipment clearly provided a canvas to make statements of ident­ity, allowing us to better under­stand status and social practices around tobacco objects.    

Snuff box of King Frederick II, c1770,

Charlottenburg Silver Vault