Round Paper Mache Snuffbox, Circa 1808.

Snuffbox decorated with a painting representing a bearded man wearing a shako, headdress of the hussars of the First Empire. Tobacco was introduced into France in the mid-16th century. The fashion for snuff develops at the court of Versailles during the 17th century. At the beginning of its marketing, tobacco was sold in carrots (small sticks of pressed tobacco), it must be grated to be snuffed. The snuff box does not exist, the consumer grates his tobacco as he consumes it. Those who find the grated tobacco particles too large also use a small mortar: a small closed tube in which the pestle slides. Graters were equipped with a small cavity to store a little grated tobacco, the principle of the snuff box was born. The first snuffboxes were small containers in the shape of a bottle, shaking them released a little powder which earned them the name of 'secouette'. Then came the small box with its waterproof lid, these are then goldsmith's objects in: gold, enamel, porcelain, mother-of-pearl, ivory. When bourgeois and aristocrats discovered the cigar, they slowly abandoned snuff, the consumption of which developed in the middle classes. Changing users, snuffboxes change in appearance and material, from great luxury they become popular objects. Around 1725, the sale of already grated tobacco will begin, the snuffbox becomes essential. During the 19th century, as the use of snuff became more and more widespread, snuffboxes began to be made in large numbers from less noble materials: horn, wood, boiled cardboard, papier-mâché. Marks of use on the whole of the snuffbox, possible sending by colissimo recommended.