BOXES OF DELIGHTS

A habit once beloved by all tranches of society, snuff taking sparked a fashion for elaborately crafted boxes to house the tobacco, opening up a rich collecting field

- EMMA LONGSTAFF

Carrying snuff was once as commonplace as carrying a phone is today. But as author Kenneth Blakemore remarks in his history of snuff boxes, 'The art of snuffing is all but unknown to us... all that remains of this once fashionable habit are the miniature boxes, intricately designed and coloured, which were once coveted by people from all walks of life - from royalty to peasants throughout the world.'

Tobacco was first imported to Europe from the Americas in the 1500s. Smoked or snorted, it was touted as a medicinal cure for everything, from headaches to the plague. By the 1600s 'snuffing'-inhaling finely ground tobacco through the nose - had become a widespread social habit. But it was not universally celebrated. In 1624, Pope Urban VIII issued a decree, excommunicating anyone using snuff on church property. In the 1640s, Tsar Michael I of Russia banned the import of tobacco and ordered snuff-takers to have their noses cut off (brutal, but effective).

Despite attempts at prohibition, in the 18th and early 19th centuries both noblemen and women took to snuffing with gusto. The Regency romp, Bridgerton, depicts Queen Charlotte snorting snuff. It is one of the show's more historically accurate elements - the real Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, was a snuff devotee, lampooned as 'Snuffy Charlotte'.

Amongst the fashionable elite, a complex set of steps accompanied the practice of taking snuff: tapping the box three times to settle the tobacco, offering snuff to the assembled company, taking a pinch from a tiny spoon or the back of the hand, and delicately dabbing the dribbling nose with a coloured handkerchief (coloured so as to hide the ugly tobacco stains).