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Colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes: Their manifest and latent functions
Siefke, Madeline Marie, M.A.
University of Delaware, 1991
UMI 300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Arbor, M I 48106
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. COLONIAL SILVER TOBACCO, SNUFF, AND PATCH BOXES:
THEIR MANIFEST AND LATENT FUNCTIONS
by
Madeline Siefke
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Early American Culture
December 1991
Copyright 1991 Madeline Siefke All Rights Reserved
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. COLONIAL SILVER TOBACCO, SNUFF, AND PATCH BOXES:
THEIR MANIFEST AND LATENT FUNCTIONS
by
Madeline Siefke
Approved: ______Gerald W.R. Ward, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee
Approved: fames Curtis, Ph.D. Director of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture
Approved: Carol E. Hoffecke D. Acting Associate ost for Graduate Studies
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES...... iv
ABSTRACT ...... 1
Chapter
1 INTRODUCTION...... 3
2 FORM AND DECORATION...... 5
3 TOBACCO AND S N U F F ...... 37
4 P A T C H E S ...... 65
5 INDICES OF GENTILITY ...... 91
6 GIFTS OF CONVENTION AND TOKENS OF L O V E ...... 118
7 CONCLUSION...... 130
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 132
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Silver box, attributed to Edward Webb, Boston, ca. 1705, 1 15/16 inches diameter, Yale Collections ...... 21
Figure 2.2 Silver box, William Rouse, Boston, ca. 1685, 1 15/16 inches diameter, Yale Collections ...... 22
Figure 2.3 Silver box, John Dixwell, Boston, ca. 1725, 1 15/16 inches wide, The Art Institute of C h i c a g o ...... 23
Figure 2.4 Silver box, John Dixwell, Boston, ca. 1715, 2 15/16 inches long, Yale Collections ...... 24
Figure 2.5 Silver box, Jacob Hurd, Boston, ca. 1730, 3 inches long, Yale Collections ...... 25
Figure 2.6 Silver box, Joseph Richardson, Philadelphia, ca. 1760, 3 1/16 inches long, Yale Collections ...... 26
Figure 2.7 Silver box, Barent Ten Eyck, Albany, NY, ca. 1740, 2 3/4 inches long, Winterthur Museum ...... 27
Figure 2.8 Silver box, attributed to Benjamin Brenton, Newport, ca. 1725, 2 5/8 inches long, Winterthur M u s e u m ...... 28
Figure 2.9 Silver box, unmarked, ca. 1750, 1 3/8 inches long, Winterthur Museum ...... 29
Figure 2.10 Silver box, marked "IG," London, ca. 1695, 1 3/4 inches long, private collection ...... 30
Figure 2.11 Silver box, Bartholomew Schaats, New York, ca. 1720, 2 7/8 inches long, Private Collection ...... 31
Figure 2.12 Silver box, Bartholomew Schaats, New York, ca. 1720, 2 7/8 inches long. Private Collection ...... 32
iv
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 2.13 Silver and cowrie shell box, John Leacock, Philadelphia, ca. 1755, 3 1/2 inches long, Ex. collection Philip Hammerslough . 33
Figure 2.14 Silver box, Francis Richardson, Philadelphia, ca. 1727, 2 1/4 inches long, Private Collection ...... 34
Figure 2.15 Silver box, William Whittemore, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, ca. 1734, 1 5/8 inches long, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of D e s i g n ...... 35
Figure 2.16 Silver box, engraved by John Coney, Boston, ca. 1701, 3 13/16 inches long, Yale Collections ...... 36
Figure 3.1 Brass tobacco box, English, dated 1772, 4 1/8 inches long, Winterthur Museum ...... 59
Figure 3.2 "Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam," John Greenwood, ca. 1755, oil on bed ticking, 37 3/4 x 75 1/4 inches, The St. Louis Art M u s e u m ...... 61
Figure 3.3 Silver and tortoiseshell box, Joseph Goldthwaite, Boston, ca. 1735, 4 1/16 inches long, Yale C o l l e c t i o n s ...... 62
Figure 3.4 Silver box, unmarked, probably Dutch, ca. 1720, 3 inches wide, The Henry Ford Museum ...... 63
Figure 3.5 "John Scrimgoeur," Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1788, oil on canvas, 92 x 61 inches, North Carolina Museum of A r t ...... 64
Figure 4.1 "Folly Adorns Withered Old Age with the Charms of Youth," Charles Antoine Coypel, ca. 1750, engraving ...... 84
Figure 4.2 Illustration after a woodcut in John Bulwer's Anthrooometamorphosis. ca. 1650, British Library ...... 85
Figure 4.3 Illustration in The Compassionate Conformist's England's Vanity: or the Voice of God against the Monstrous Sin of Pride in Dress and Apparel. . . 1683, British L i b r a r y ...... 87
Figure 4.4 "Morning," William Hogarth, 1738, engraving, 4 3/4 x 6 i n c h e s ...... 88
Figure 4.5 "Pantheon Macaroni," Philip Dawe, ca. 1780, m e z z o t i n t ...... 90
Figure 5.1 Plate 5 in F. Nivelson's The Rudiments of Genteel Behavior. 1737, Winterthur Library ...... 113
v
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 5.2 Silver box, John Dixwell, Boston, ca. 1720, 1 7/8 inches wide, Yale Collections ...... 114
Figure 5.3 "Mrs. Mordecai Booth," William Dering, oil on canvas, 50 x 39 1/2 inches, Private Collection...... 116
Figure 5.4 Gold box, Jacob Hurd, Boston, ca. 1735, 2 11/16 inches long, Museum of Fine Arts, B o s t o n ...... 117
Figure 6.1 "The French Coffee House," ca. 1760, aquatint after a watercolor by Thomas Rowlandson...... 128
Figure 6.2 Silver box, John Potwine, Boston, Hartford or Coventry, Connecticut, ca. 1750, 3 5/8 inches long, Ex. collection Providence C o l l e g e ...... 129
vi
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT
Colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes are powerful
documents of the patterns of social interaction and hierarchy in
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. The purpose of this
study is to examine the functions of the boxes, to identify their
users, to categorize their decoration and form, and to consider the
symbolic value with which they were invested.
The study draws on the silver boxes themselves, taken
together with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literary sources
such as essays, sermons, poems, and diaries. Contemporary prints
also are helpful in defining the various uses of the boxes, and the
attitudes held about them, their contents, and those who used them.
The silver boxes prove to have transcended their manifest
function as containers to embrace latent functions as indices of
gentility and tools for social interaction. They were used both to
create social distance, and to create and affirm social bonds. They
acted as sign-vehicles that informed observers about their owners'
socioeconomic status, concept of self, and attitude toward others.
The boxes' decoration reflected the erudition and social ambitions of
their owners, and their graceful use demonstrated their owners'
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knowledge of courtly behavior. In addition, exchange of the boxes
was used to strengthen and define social bonds.
Thus, colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes served
a variety of purposes and contained many layers of meaning. Their
meanings were potent during the colonial era, and continue to be
powerful for modern students as they strive to better understand
early American material culture and social history.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes have
received scant attention from students of European and American
silver, whose interest generally has been caught by the grand boxes
of the European court, or by more substantial American silver
objects, such as sugar boxes, porringers, and beakers. Existing
studies address the American boxes only briefly, and focus primarily
on their aesthetics. Yet, the boxes would seem to be potent indices
of gentility and telling documents of patterns of social interaction.
The purpose of this essay is to examine the manifest and
latent functions of colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes.
How were the boxes and their contents used? What were the intrinsic
properties that differentiated a tobacco box from a snuff box or a
patch box? How were the boxes decorated? Who used the boxes and
their contents? What opinions were held about the boxes, their
contents, and those who used them? With what symbolic value were the
boxes invested?
The study drew on the silver boxes themselves, taken
together with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literary sources
such as essays, sermons, poems, and diaries. Current scholarship on
3
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. gentility, gift giving, and early American material life provided the
theoretical underpinnings on which the essay is based.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 2
FORM AND DECORATION
Most colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes are
round or oval in shape, with flat, conforming lids. As a rule, the
boxes were made from a flat pieces of metal onto which straight,
seamed sides were soldered; it is unusual for the sides of a box to
have been raised from its base. Lids, whether loose or hinged,
generally were seamed and soldered, also. Decorative moldings
sometimes were applied to the edge of the base and lid.
Many American craftsmen manufactured boxes themselves, while
also occasionally importing boxes ready-made from England. For
example, the Philadelphia silversmith Joseph Richardson wrote to
London on February 9, 1760, ordering a quantity of plate including
such small items as casters, buckles, spurs, and snuff boxes. He
expressly demanded that they "be Good work and of the Newest
fashion."^ Indeed, so successful was the trade in imported plate
that some native craftsmen believed their own businesses to be
imperiled. In 1773 Daniel Henchman of Boston was so concerned that
^ Letter from Joseph Richardson to Thomas How and John Masterman, February 9, 1760, quoted in Martha Gandy Fales, Joseph Richardson and Family. Philadelphia Silversmiths (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1974), 229.
5
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he placed a notice in the Boston Evening-Post. pleading with its
readers to act as his patrons over
those strangers among us who import and sell English plate, to the great hurt and prejudice of the townsmen who have been bred in the business.^
Merchants selling colonial American silver struggled against the
perception that imported plate was more fashionable; thus, Henchman's
appeals to the patriotism of Boston consumers competed with their
desire to tie themselves closely to courtly styles.^
In fact, short of analyzing the content of its metal, it is
often difficult to judge whether an unmarked box was made in England
or the colonies.^ Few English boxes were hallmarked, for they ran
the risk of being damaged in the marking process; completely unmarked
boxes as well as ones just bearing makers' marks were produced both
9 Boston Evening-Post. Jan. 4, 1773, quoted in Thomas J. Wertenbaker, The Golden Age of Colonial Culture. 2nd ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1949), 38.
O Colonial newspapers are filled with advertisements of craftsmen who boast of their London training and imported, fashionable goods. For example, The New-York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury of Nov. 12, 1770, included a notice that "Thomas Richardson, Jeweller and Silver-Smith, at the lower End of Wallstreet in this City, Takes this opportunity to inform the publick in general, that he is just arrived from London, and has fresh imported a great assortment of all sorts of jewellery, plated buckles, great choices of curious snuff boxes...which he will sell wholesale and retail, on the most reasonable terms," quoted in Rita Susswein Gottesman, compiler, The Arts and Crafts in New York 1726- 1776. Advertisements and News Items from New York Citv Newspapers (New York: New York Historical Society, 1938), 72-73.
^ English plate proves to be at least 92.5 percent pure silver, thus meeting the criterion by which it was judged sterling. In the colonies, where there was no regulating guild, plate often fell somewhat short of the sterling standard.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in Britain and America.^ Furthermore, American smiths were free to
mark the imported English boxes that they sold. Either native-made
or imported boxes could be decorated by American craftsmen to the
specifications of their local customers.® Indeed, the flat lids of
the boxes used in the colonies were particularly receptive to
engraved decoration; one expects to find some amount of engraving on
virtually every box. That engraving may be categorized as being
either inscriptive, heraldic, or purely decorative.^ Often one finds
more than one of these engraving types combined on a single box.
Stylized flowers were the most commonly used decorative
motifs on silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes. There was a rich
tradition of floral engraving on English silver. From the late
sixteenth century, English silversmiths began to explore the
intricacies of plants, striving not for botanical accuracy but for
the decorative possibilities inherent in flowers. They worked in an
era that was deeply appreciative of the beauty of flowers. Herbals
were published, and flower-strewn Eastern goods such as Chinese and
® Fales, Joseph Richardson. 291.
® American silver design was market-driven. Colonial silversmiths met a demand for goods that were based on the latest London court fashions, yet interpreted to suit the tastes and needs of the merchants, clergymen, and successful landholders who were their patrons. See Barbara McLean Ward and Gerald W. R. Ward, eds. , Silver in American Life (New York: The American Federation of Arts, 1979), 15.
1 Kathryn C. Buhler, "Some Engraved American Silver Part I, Prior to About 1740," The Magazine Antiques vol. 48, no. 5 (November, 1945), 268.
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Iznick pottery and Indian palampores began to be imported in large o quantities.
From ancient times, plants have been assigned symbolic
meanings. For example, laurel wreaths were presented to Roman heroes
as a sign of honor and a token of victory. In turn, myrtle was used
as a symbol of constancy and friendship. In his Iconologia (1603)
Cesare Ripa's allegory for friendship describes a fair young woman
crowned by a myrtle wreath. Ripa explains that myrtle, like
friendship, is evergreen. In his discussion of the love of virtue,
Ripa elaborates on the theme of a wreath; he notes that a wreath's
circular form is perfect, just as virtue is perfect.®
Myrtle wreaths frequently appear as borders on silver boxes.
One such box, attributed to Edward Webb of Boston, shows the leafy
ring encircling a stylized Tudor rose (fig. 2.1). The base is
engraved in part "MB Ex dono to EB/Eliza Brame." It may well be that
the myrtle decoration was selected to represent the constant
affection of the unidentified gift-giver "MB" for Eliza. The
® Charles Chichelle Oman, English Engraved Silver 1150-1900 (London: Faber and Faber, 1978), 49.
® Cesare Ripa. Baroque and Rococo Pictorial Imagery. The 1758- 1760 Hertel Edition of Rina's Iconologia. ed. by Edward A. Maser (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1971), plates 52 and 80. Ripa's Iconologia discusses concepts such as friendship and love of virtue, and suggests allegorical characters that can be used to embody each concept. The appearance of each character is described, together with its symbolic attributes. Ripa supports his allegories with references to scripture and classical literature. The Iconologia was very popular, with numerous editions appearing throughout the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries; the first English translation was published in London in 1709 under the title Moral Emblems. (Ripa, Baroque and Rococo Pictorial Imagery, ix-xi.)
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symbolism of myrtle here is reinforced by its pairing with a rose, an
attribute of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.1®
Another circular box, also made in Boston, but by William
Rouse, is engraved with a sunflower (fig. 2.2). Like myrtle,
sunflowers have been given symbolic meaning; they represent
affectionate remembrance. Their symbolism grows from the myth of the
lovers Apollo and Clytie. Clytie became jealous, and punished by
being transformed into a sunflower. As a flower, she forever turns
her head toward the sun in memory of the love she shared with the sun
god.11
The sunflower on the Rouse box is depicted as a large, round
flower with veined petals and stippled center. Its design is similar
to that of blossoms that appear on Stuart embroideries.1^ Indeed,
there was a close connection between the decoration of silver
embroidery; a single craftsman could create designs for both media.
The Pennsylvania Packet of July 13, 1772, included the announcement
that
John Anthony Beau, a celebrated Chaser . . . takes this method to recommend himself to the favor of the Public, and acquaints them that he performs all sorts of chasing work in gold, silver, and other metals. He likewise
1® Sam Segal, A Flowerv Past. A Survey of Dutch and Flemish Flower Painting From 1600 Until the Present (Amsterdam: Dr. S. Segal, 1982), 12. 1 1 Ovid, Metamorphosis. trans. by Mary M. Innes (London: Penguin Group, 1955), 99-101; Arnold Whittick, Symbols for Designers (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, Ltd., 1935), 113-114.
12 Martha Gandy Fales, Early American Silver for the Cautious Collector (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1970), 8-10.
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offers his services to teach Ladies Drawing, and to give them the best principles to learn very soon, let it be in figures, ornaments, flowers, or designs for embroidering, etc.13
The same floral motifs appear again and again in colonial
applied arts. Craftsmen like Beau designed for a variety of
materials, and were influenced by objects they encountered around
them. A box by John Dixwell of Boston in the collection of the Art
Institute of Chicago speaks of the cross-fertilization of American
design (fig. 2.3). The box is engraved with tulips and stylized
Tudor roses in a pattern akin to that found on the 1705 gravestone of
Thaddeus MacCarty in Boston's Old Granary Burying Ground. It may be
that Dixwell was influenced by the gravestone, or he and the stone
cutter may have worked from a common source.1^
Another box by Dixwell is heart-shaped and decorated with a
pattern of scrolling acanthus within a foliate border (fig. 2.4).
Its engraving is considerably more assured than that of the Art
Institute box. Taken together, the two boxes suggest the patterns of
labor within the Dixwell shop. Perhaps a relatively inexperienced
worker engraved the Chicago Box. In turn, it may be that a
Pennsylvania Packet. July 13, 1772, quoted in Alfred Coxe Prime, compiler, The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia. Maryland, and South Carolina 1721-1785 (New York: The Walpole Society, 1929), 47.
1^ Milo M. Naeve and Lynn Springer Roberts, A Decade of Decorative Arts. The Antiquarian Society of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1986), 80. However, while there is a similarity between the decoration of the box and tombstone, Naeve overstates the case when he argues that the two share the same composition.
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spec:.*lized engraver decorated the heart-shaped box; silversmiths
occasionally contracted work to engravers. Contemporary
advertisements speak of such specialized craftsmen and their working
relationship with silversmiths. For example, the Pennsylvania
Gazette of May 19, 1748, announced
Engraving on Gold, Silver, or Pewter, done by Lawrence Herbert, from London, at Philip Syng's Goldsmith, in Front-street.^
The scrolling acanthus engraved on the heart-shaped box is
akin to the leafy mantling used in heraldic decoration. In all
likelihood, the foliate pattern was based on designs found in an
imported book such as John Guillim's Display of H e r a l d r y First
published in 1611, Guillim's treatise went through numerous editions
and was popular among American craftsmen. The Redwood Library of
Newport and the Providence Library both had copies of the Display of
Heraldry available for their members. In turn, Nathaniel Hurd was so
taken with the book that a copy of it appears in his portrait by John
Singleton Copley. ^
A more complex decoration appears on an oval box by Jacob
Hurd (fig. 2.5). The box's lid is centered by a basket filled with
flowers and fruit beneath a winged heart pierced with a pair of
arrows. The engraving clearly speaks of the box's use as a love
1 5 Pennsylvania Gazette. May 19, 1748, quoted in Prime, Arts and Crafts. 19.
^ Ward and Ward, Silver in American Life. 141.
^ Fales, Earlv American Silver. 238-240.
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token. Its hearts and flowers may seem feminine to modern eyes, but
the box actually belonged to the preacher Joseph Burbeen; his name
and the date "1729" are engraved on its base.
An elaborate compass-shaped snuff box by Joseph Richardson
also is decorated with a basket of flowers (fig. 2.6). However,
whereas the basket is engraved on Burbeen's box, it is chased on the
Richardson box, and stands in relief. Richardson's masterful chasing
and lively design lend a sense of extravagant, rococo movement to the
box. In fact, chasing and repousse work are extremely unusual on
American boxes. Richardson probably was influenced by chased English
1 8 boxes he imported in 1759 and 1760. ° Furthermore, he surely was
aware of the rococo designs of other Philadelphia craftsmen. Martha
Gandy Fales suggests that Richardson may have received his pattern
from a wood carver; an unexplained debt to the carver Hercules
Courtenay appears in his records.^®
Birds also figure in the decoration of colonial boxes. A
heart-shaped box by the Albany silversmith Barent Ten Eyck depicts a
preening bird with spread tail standing within a foliate border (fig.
2.7). The box has been catalogued as being used for snuff, but its
rather whimsical decoration perhaps suggests another purpose: as a
Charles F. Montgomery and Patricia E. Kane, eds., American Art: 1750-1800 Toward Independence (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976), 196.
Fales, Joseph Richardson. 133.
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container for patches. The bird's care for its appearance may speak
of the stylish elegance and pride of the box's owner.
Other boxes are decorated with less abstracted birds. A box
attributed to Benjamin Brenton of Newport centers a bird with spread
wings rising above a putto's head amid scrolling foliage within a
myrtle wreath (fig. 2.8). The base is inscribed "I S/M S." The
bird's posture and the cockade atop its head suggest that it is a
phoenix or ho-ho bird. Since the early Christian era, the phoenix
has symbolized resurrection and immortality. In turn, it was a very
popular motif for chinoiserie decoration, and may be seen as part of
the western fascination with the exotic East. Thus, the box's
decoration may be interpreted on several levels. In the context of
the putto, myrtle wreath, and inscription, the bird may speak of
undying love. In turn, the use of the bird, mask, and foliage also
indicates a high degree of awareness of London style and decorative
motifs on the part of the engraver and his customer.
Figurative engraving on American silver boxes is unusual,
and largely appears on boxes made in the former Dutch colony of New
York. A silversmith who learned his craft in Holland or in a shop
steeped in the Dutch tradition trained in an environment in which an
emphasis was placed on figurative and genre subjects; they frequently
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, birds were conventional symbols of pride in appearance. In his allegory on false splendor, Ripa describes a blind-folded young woman holding a peacock. He explains that the peacock symbolizes pride. Enthralled by its own splendid plumage, the peacock focuses on itself and ignores those about it. See Ripa, Baroque and Rococo Pictorial Imagery, pi. 29.
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appear on Dutch silver. Furthermore, immigrant customers and those
who lived in predominately Dutch communities in the New World were
accustomed to such decoration, and often commissioned richly engraved
silver. In contrast, English silver engraved with genre scenes was
rare, and such scenes were correspondingly unusual in the English
colonies.^
A cupid walking in a townscape, shooting arrows at a heart,
decorates an unmarked box in the Winterthur collection (fig. 2.9).^
The box's engraving speaks eloquently of its use as a love token. In
addition, the decoration links the bow with oval amatory spice boxes
made in England and the Lowlands in the late seventeenth century;
such spice boxes often were decorated with arrow-shooting amorini in
a landscape (fig. 2.10). The Winterthur box simplifies this motif,
and omits the amatory motto found on the spice boxes. Emblem books
may well have been the design sources for the decoration of the spice O O boxes and the Winterthur box. Such emblem books paired poetry with
engravings and were extremely popular in Europe in the seventeenth
century. In turn, some of these books were imported to colonial
^ Oman, English Engraved Silver. 65.
^ A virtually identical box is part of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
^ Eric Delieb, Silver Boxes (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., Publisher, 1968), 13-14.
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America. For example, a copy of Alciati's Emblemata (1531) belonged
to the father-in-law of Boston silversmith, Edward Winslow.^
A box by Bartholomew Schaats of New York is decorated with
classical figures, also (fig. 2.11). Its face is engraved with an
intricate scene from the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. Thisbe throws
herself on a sword, believing that Pyramus has just been killed by a
lion; life has no meaning for her without her lover. The fountain's
spout refers to the lion, giving the engraving a narrative aspect;
both the recent past and the present are suggested. In all
probability a print served as a source for this rather complex
design.
The base of the Schaats box bears a cypher, an ornamental,
symmetrical monogram (fig. 2.12). The cypher interweaves and
stylizes the individual letters, uniting them in a decorative whole.
Design books were useful tools for engravers in laying out their
cyphers. When Joseph Richardson began his career, he asked a friend
visiting England to buy some books for him. These included "an
alphabet Cypher book to Engrave by," "a book of Drafts to Draw by,"
and "a book to Ingrave Snuff boxes.Unfortunately, it is not
possible to identify what particular books Richardson received.
However, Sympson's Book of Cyphers (ca. 1725) was used widely in the
^ Nygren, "Edward Winslow's Sugar Boxes," 49-51. Alciati's Emblemata was the first book of emblem poetry. (Milton Klonsky, ed., Speaking Pictures. A Gallery of Pictorial Poetry from the Sixteenth Century to the Present (New York: Harmony Books, 1975), 5.
^ Fales, Joseph Richardson. 54.
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colonies, and its date of publication corresponds with Richardson's
request. ^
Cyphers transcended mere ornamentation. They served as
means by which to identify the owners of the boxes, and they spoke of
those owners' pride in their belongings. Silver boxes were owned by
the elite members of colonial society. By marking the boxes with
their initials, they focused attention on their fine and costly
possessions. Their initials were displayed on the outside of the
boxes for all to acknowledge and admire.
Often engravers and their patrons selected a simple, more
graphic arrangement of letters for their monograms. This was
particularly true in New England where cyphers rarely were used.^
For example, the base of the William Rouse sunflower box is inscribed
with simple block letters: "LF."
With the second half of the eighteenth century, both cyphers
and block letters became less popular, and script capitals
increasingly were used. A snuff box by John Leacock of Philadelphia
centers the script monogram "JM" beneath a lion's mask within a
scrolling and foliate border (fig. 2.13). A cowrie shell forms the
body of the box. Shell snuff boxes were especially well-suited for
their purpose; with a skillfully fitted lid they were virtually
^ Fales, Earlv American Silver. 236.
^ Buhler, "Some Engraved American Silver, Part I," 269.
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airtight, thus preserving the freshness of the tobacco within.
Furthermore, the smooth, cool surface of the shell made them pleasant
to hold and display. Many cowrie boxes were produced in America,
particularly in the years immediately preceding the Revolutionary War
and in the early federal period. Indeed, an inventory of the shop of
J. and N. Richardson of Philadelphia taken on May 31, 1790, lists
some "26 shells for snuff boxes.
Boxes occasionally were inscribed not just with a monogram,
but with a full name. A box in a private collection bears the name
"Sarah Penrose" (fig. 2.14). The engraving established ownership
beyond any doubt, and in its use of a surname explicitly reminded
onlookers of the fortunate owner's family. The prestige of the
silver box thus extended beyond its carrier to her family at large.
In addition, an inscribed name was a practical precaution.
A silver box frequently was carried by its owner outside his house,
and so it ran the risk of being lost. Colonial newspapers document
the use of inscriptions to describe lost boxes:
Lost in removing Goods in the last Fire at the Court House, a Silver Snuff Box marked Sa. Butler, a Lyon engrav'd theron, any Person who will bring it to the Owner, or to the Printer, shall have 20s. old Tenor Reward; and if offer'd to sell, it's desir'd it may be stop'd.®®
Hugh McCausland, Snuff and Snuff-Boxes (London: The Batchworth Press, 1951), 110.
Fales, Joseph Richardson. 262-264.
O A Boston Gazette. Dec. 29, 1747, quoted in George Francis Dow, compiler, The Arts and Crafts in New England 1704-1775 (Topsfield, MA: The Wayside Press, 1927), 61.
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Thus, inscriptions helped citizens to return lost property, while
working to hinder potential villains who might attempt to sell it
illegally.
The inscriptions on some boxes moved beyond drawing
attention to their owners to identifying those who had given the
boxes to the owners. Thus, for example, the box attributed to
Benjamin Breton is inscribed "I S/M S" (See fig. 2.8). Such donative
inscriptions served to remind the owners of the boxes of their
friends, while publicly drawing attention to these friends'
generosity and financial stature.
The affection between the boxes' donors and recipients
sometimes is described in inscribed verse. The rhymes are cryptic,
yet heart-felt. A box by William Whittemore of Portsmouth reads "A
K, This is Thine and Thou art Mine 1734" (fig. 2.15). The box's
heart shape reinforces the feeling behind its inscription. However,
in their time, the very simplicity of such rhymes drew criticism. In
one of Thomas Brown's dialogues, a character defines the hierarchy of
poetry; he considered the writers of drama to be the best poets, and
had little time for "the humble Dealers in Tobacco-Box-
Inscriptions.
Finally, silver boxes were decorated with heraldic
engraving. During the colonial era, coats of arms were extremely
popular decorative motifs among the English elite. Noble families
^ Thomas Brown, "Dialogue I, St. James' Park," in A Collection of the Dialogues written bv Mr. Thomas Brown (London: 1704), 56.
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proudly displayed their badges on their plate, and jealously guarded
the right to use coats of arms. The Herald's College maintainedthe
standards of the armigerous society. However, in the colonies, far
away from the Herald's College and the watchful eye of the nobility,
socially ambitious Americans assumed coats of arms of their own.
Such was the demand for heraldic decoration that engravers
specifically advertised that aspect of their skills. For example,
the Maryland Gazette of November 1, 1753, announced that
Joseph Garrton, Engraver from the West Indies, Undertakes all manner of Engraving in the Flat-Stitch Way, on Silver, or Gold Plate, such as Coats of Arms, Crests, Cyphers, Borders on Salvers, etc. ^
A box in the Yale collection bears the shield of the
Jeffries family amid foliate mantling surmounted by a castle (fig.
2.16). The box is of special interest in that it bears two sets of
marks. One set belongs to the Boston silversmith John Coney, who
probably engraved the box. The other marks are of an unidentified
London smith who made the box in ca. 1681; thus, we have evidence of
Coney having imported English boxes. However, Coney was prepared to
make boxes himself. His inventory listed a tobacco box anvil.^
Some boxes did not assume a coat of arms outright, but just
borrowed elements of traditional heraldry. Such is the case with the
box belonging to Sarah Penrose (See fig. 2.14). Her name appears
^ Maryland Gazette. Nov. 1, 1753, quoted in Prime, The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia. 19.
•^Ward and Ward, Silver in American Life. 71.
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within a shield-shaped reserve, amid leafy mantling; the inscription
is made more impressive by the heraldic motifs about it. In this
manner, Sarah Penrose and her family subtly were linked with the
nobility.
Thus, the engraving on silver tobacco, snuff, and patch
boxes may be categorized as being heraldic, inscriptive, or purely
decorative. The engravings document colonial silversmiths' awareness
of London fashions, and their patrons' social aspirations.
Furthermore, the decoration of the boxes highlights their use in
creating and strengthening social bonds. Evocative images such as
hearts, flowers, and classical figures like Cupid, Pyramus, and
Thisbe, speak of boxes acting as love tokens, while inscriptions tell
of their use as gifts.
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TOBACCO AND SNUFF
In 1703 Englishman Lawrence Spooner wrote of tobacco
And 'tis so much in fashion at this day, That scarce he's thought to be a well-bred Man, Except he snuff. or chaw, or smoke it c a n . ^
Indeed, during the colonial period, tobacco was virtually omnipresent
in the Anglo-American world. Not only men, but women and children as
well avidly consumed tobacco in its various forms. Advertisements,
sermons, journals, and poetry all speak of the manner in which the
plant was used and, furthermore, suggest the considerable meaning
with which it was imbued. By examining the attitudes held toward
tobacco in the colonial period, it is possible to gain insight into
how colonial silver tobacco and snuff boxes were used, to define the
users of these containers, and to explore the various meanings
associated with the boxes themselves.
For the most part, tobacco was used in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries in three distinct ways: by smoking, snuffing,
or chewing. These means of consumption are suggested in the verse by
Lawrence Spooner, A Looking Glass for Smoakers: or. The Danger of the Needless or Intemperate Use of Tobacco . . . (London: Printed for A. Baldwin, 1703), 18.
37
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Spooner, and also by the decoration on the lid of an English brass
tobacco box dated 1772 (fig. 3.1). The cover is engraved with a
vignette of three figures. One, a richly dressed gentleman wearing a
sword, offers a snuff box to his companions, and asks, "Voule Vous de
Rappe?" while the more plainly clad figure in the center holds a
pipe, and replies in accented tones, "No dis been better." A coarse,
rural character at his side offers his own choice of tobacco and
asks, "Will you have a quid?" Thus, the brass box speaks not only of
the ways in which tobacco was used, but also suggests the types of
people associated with each different method of consumption; a
hierarchy of use is described.
By the eighteenth century, snuffing was the modish way in
which fashionable Englishmen took tobacco. Smoking was associated
with soldiers, seamen, country squires, and foreigners; the Dutch
were known to be great smokers, which might account for the accent of
the box's figure with the pipe. Leaders of English society did not
use pipes, and none but rude yokels were linked to the messy habit of
chewing tobacco.
In America, where there was neither court nor nobility,
class distinctions regarding the different uses of tobacco were far
less rigid, and colonists were no restricted by their station to
choosing one method over another; for example, President John Adams
is known to have enjoyed using tobacco in all three forms at various
OC Hugh McCausland, Snuff and Snuff-Boxes (London: The Batchworth Press, 1951), 23.
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stages in his life.^ Nonetheless, snuffing was largely the urban
habit of English and Dutch government officials and merchants, and
other colonial leaders, and only slowly spread down through society
and into the countryside.^ Throughout the colonial period, smoking
remained the most popular means of enjoying tobacco, and chewing
tobacco was widely practiced, as well.
It is often exceedingly difficult to define the purpose of
specific small American silver boxes, to tell if a box was used for
smoking tobacco or snuff, or for some entirely different reason, such
as carrying patches. However, during the colonial period,
distinctions seem to have been made about the appropriate forms for
the various types of box. For example, an advertisement published is
The South Carolina Gazette on January 15, 1741, announced that a
Charleston goldsmith named Mr. January made both snuff and tobacco OQ boxes. Whether it was size or shape or decoration of type of lid
that differentiated the two sorts of boxes for Mr. January is not
known.
Generally, tobacco boxes are larger than snuff boxes; it
takes more tobacco to fill a pipe than it does to make a pinch of
snuff. However, this guideline is useful in determining the purpose
John Adams, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. I, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 1961), 12-13. O7 Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff Boxes. 49. OQ The South Carolina Gazette. Jan. 15, 1741, quoted in Alfred Coxe Prime, compiler, The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia. Maryland and South Carolina 1721-1785 (New York: The Walpole Society, 1929), 75-76.
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of a box only when one has an idea of the box's date; snuff boxes
grew as the eighteenth century progressed and snuff became more
widely used and less expensive. In the early eighteenth century
snuff boxes could be around 2 1/2 inches in length. However, by the
end of the colonial period, snuff boxes grew to be as large as 4
inches in length, a size often linked with tobacco boxes.^
Furthermore, larger boxes could have held smoking tobacco, or in
turn, could have been communal, table boxes used for snuff in homes,
taverns, or clubs.
Whether or not a box has a hinged lid is often used to
define its intended purpose; as a rule, after ca. 1730, European
snuff boxes were made with hinges, and many American snuff boxes are
hinged also.^ However, this criterion for determining a box's
purpose must be used cautiously. Table snuff boxes would seem to
have had loose lids, and pocket snuff boxes did not have hinges as a
matter of course. A notice in The New-York Weekly Journal in 1738
announced the loss of "an Oval Snuff Box, with a Hinge.The
specific reference to a hinge suggests that not all snuff boxes had
fixed lids.
Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff Boxes. 9.
^ Kenneth Blakemore, Snuff Boxes (London: Frederick Mulder Ltd. , 1976), 29.
^ Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff Boxes. 50.
^ The New-York Weekly Journal. Jan. 2, 1738, quoted in Rita Susswein Gottesman, The Arts and Crafts in New York 1726-1776. Advertisements and News Items from New York Citv Newspapers (New York: New York Historical Society, 1938), 74-75.
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Tobacco consumption played an important role in American
life from the very first years of settlement. In his Wonder-Working
Providence. Edward Johnson describes the homesickness suffered by
many of the first settlers to Massachusetts, and recounts how they
lived through their first bleak winter in the New World, enjoying
what familiar comforts that they could:
[making] shift to rub out the Winters cold by the Fire side, having fuell enough growing at their very doores, turning down many a drop of the Bottell, and burning Tobacco with all the Ease they could.^
Smoking was not just the province of men in colonial
America, but of women and children, too. The diarist John Smith
wrote in 1747 of presenting a Philadelphia matron with "a Large pearl
Tobacco Box set in silver In hopes of being remembered by when she
smoakes a pipe," while John Adams reminisced about learning "the Use
of [tobacco] upon Ponds of Ice, when Skaiting with Boys at eight
Years of Age."^ Such early introduction to tobacco could lead to a
lifetime's addiction to smoking; indeed, Adams was to flirt with
various forms of tobacco for the rest of his life.
Men of the colonial period often developed fierce, even
poetic devotion to tobacco, and to the boxes that contained it. The
^ Edward Johnson, Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence 1628-51. ed. J. Franklin Jameson (New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1910), 45.
^ Diary of John Smith, quoted in Kathryn CA. Buhler and Graham Hood, American Silver. Garvan and Other Collections in the Yale University Art Gallery, vol. 1 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970), 141-42; Adams, Diary. 1: 13.
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English essayist Sir Richard Steele lauded tobacco as a medicinal
wonder and a source of inspiration, and rhapsodized about his box:
Whoever in a mean Abode presumes
To lodge that sacred Herb, whose curling Fumes
(More grateful than Sabaean Odours far)
Play round the Nose, and wanton in the Air;
May Aesculapius let him always want
The Virtues of the Health-restoring Plant. . .
Here, were I not confin'd in narrow space,
The Vertues of the wondrous Herb I'd trace;
How its green Beauties flourish, in what Ground,
And by what happy Chance it was by Liber found;
How the defect of Talk it can supply,
If we this way our Breath employ;
How it collects the Thoughts, and serves instead
Of biting Nails, or harrowing up the Head. . . ^
For Steele, tobacco was a gift from the gods themselves, and deserved
to be honored as such; silver containers lent tremendous dignity to
the tobacco within.
Steele's belief in the medicinal powers of tobacco was
widely shared. The plant was extolled as a panacea and credited with
curing such diverse ills as indigestion, paralysis, apoplexy, and
Sir Richard Steele, "On a Tobacco Box," in Poetical Miscellanies. Consisting of Original Poems and Translations. (London: Mr. Steele, 1714), 208-10.
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toothache.^® Huge faith was placed particularly in tobacco's ability
to ward off the plague. A pamphlet published in London in 1722
reminded its readers that
no one thing is so generally Recommended by Physicians, as the Use of TOBACCO, Insomuch that Dr. Willis tells us, that during the Time of that dreadful Visitation in London in the Year 1665, it was observed that no Tobacconist's Houses were Infected.
It was also observed that those who Smoaked frequently were not Infected, especially if they Smoaked in a Morning.^
Even critics of smoking begrudgingly accepted the notion that tobacco
could act as a medicine, but many went on to warn that recreational,
intemperate use of the plant could "[give] Birth to those very
Diseases that heretofore it cur'd.
Despite such dire warnings, casual use of tobacco grew
throughout the colonial period, and its importance as a medicine
gradually declined. Tobacco came to be associated with the gathering
together of friends. It acted as a vehicle of social interaction,
^ Thomas Short, Discourse on Tea. Sugar. Milk. Made-Wines. Spirits. Punch. Tobacco, etc.. with Plain and Useful Rules for Goutv People. in Jerome E. Brooks, ed., Tobacco, its History Illustrated bv the Books. Manuscripts. and Engravings in the Library of George Arents. Jr.. vol. 3 (New York: Rosenbach Company, 1937-52), 333.
^ The Second Part of the Treatise on the Late Dreadful Plague in France. . . (London: Printed by H. Parker, 1722), 4.
A Q Pandora's Box: A Satvr Against Snuff (London: Printed by J. Bettenham, 3. Cotton Mather deplored the use of tobacco for pleasure, but conceded that it carefully could be used for medicinal purposes. He outlined his views on tobacco and snuff in an advice manual for prospective ministers, Manuductio ad Ministerium. Directions for a Candidate of the Ministry (Boston: Printed for Thomas Hancock, 1726), 133-35.
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the offer of tobacco being seen as a gesture of friendship. An
article in an edition of The Tatler form 1710 speaks of this link
between tobacco and camaraderie; the editor writes of going to his
club, where he "had no sooner taken [his] seat, by Sir Jeoffrey, to
show his good-will towards [him], gave [him] a pipe of his own
tobacco, and stirred up the fire.Feeling indebted by such an
amiable gesture, the writer then was obliged to show his own goodwill
by listening to his companion's tedious stories.
The connection between clubs and taverns, and smoking was a
very strong one. Not only were clubs places to meet with friends,
but they were also spots that served liquor, and drinking and smoking
were seen to go hand in hand. Indeed, some tobacconists obliged
their customers by selling alcohol in addition to tobacco; the
diarist Samuel Pepys recorded a visit to a London tobacco shop where
he and a friend "went up to the top of the house and there sat
drinking Lambeth ale a good while.
A painting by John Greenwood, Sea Captains Carousing in
Surinam, illustrates further the association of smoking and drinking
(fig. 3.2). Traditionally believed to show a group of merchantsfrom
Newport, Rhode Island, the painting portrays a riotous evening in a
tavern; men are drinking punch by the bowl-full, knocking chairs to
^ The Tatler. no 132 (Saturday, Feb. 11, 1710), in Select British Classics. vol. 25 (Philadelphia: Samuel F. Bradford, 1803, 93.
Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepvs. vol. 2, ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews (Berkley; University of California Press, 1983), 117.
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the floor, and playing tricks on one another.^ One man is
staggeringly drunk, another is being sick, and pipes and tobacco are
everywhere. The part smoking played in the debauched revelry of the
eighteenth century was not lost on the critics of tobacco. Lawrence
Spooner warned
Where modest Temperance
Is most delighted,
He oft-times gets from thence,
As one afrighted.
But where much Wine we spy,
Or basest Gluttony,
There he delights to lie:
Cursed Tobacco. ^
American authors also were concerned with intemperance. Even John
Adams, himself a smoker, was alarmed at the idle dissipation of the
young men of Worcester, who did not study, but embraced sensual
pleasures, spending every evening "playing Cards, drinking Punch and
Wine, Smoaking Tobacco, swearing &ca. while one hundred of the best
Books lie on the shelves, Desks, and Chairs, in the same room.""’’* If
one was smoking, one was not working; colonial moralists sought to
^ Charles F. Montgomery and Patricia E. Kane, eds. American Art: 1750-1800 Towards Independence (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976), 71-72.
^ Spooner, A Looking Glass. 99.
^ Adams, Diary. 1: 76-77.
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prevent their neighbors from falling into lives of idleness and
excess.
Moralists also recognized the possibility of addiction to
tobacco. In his pamphlet addressed to prospective ministers, Cotton
Mather expressed his wish that there were more controls on the
purchase of tobacco, and warned of the hold that tobacco could gain
on smokers:
If once you get into the way of Smoking. there will be extreme hazard, of your becoming a Slave to the Pipe, and ever Insatiably craving for it. People may think what they will; But such a Slavery, is much below the Dignity of a Rational Creature: and much more of a Gracious Christian.•***
If his readers insisted on smoking for reasons of their health,
Mather urged that they be extremely careful and moderate in their
consumption; it was unseeming for a Christian to be dependent on a
plant. It should be noted, however, that Mather's criticism of
smoking was not echoed by all church leaders. Indeed, a number of
preachers enjoyed tobacco, themselves; the Yale collection includes
silver tobacco and snuff boxes owned by such prominent clergymen as
Isaac Stiles, Joseph Burbeen ( See fig. 2.5), and William Welsteed
(fig. 3.3).
Just as some moralists were concerned with intemperance and
addiction, colonial government officials similarly were anxious about
the relationship of tobacco to idleness and immoderation, and in some
colonies attempted to restrict, if not prohibit, the use of tobacco
Mather, Manuductio, 133.
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altogether. In Massachusetts tobacco was forbidden entirely until
1637, and limitations were placed on its consumption thereafter, so
as to prevent its abuse.^ Laws designed to control the use of
tobacco were akin to other types of moral legislation regarding
issues such as drinking and gambling.^® Dissipation on the part of
individual citizens was seen as a threat to the moral and economic
fiber of the community as a whole.
However, the emphasis of legislation controlling the use of
tobacco focused less on moral issues, and more on ones of safety.
The General Court deemed smoking a fire hazard, and adopted codes
that made it illegal to smoke near any house or barn, or in the
fields, except at mealtimes or when on a journey.^ These laws
appear to have gone largely unenforced, but occasionally violators of
the regulations were brought to court and punished. For example, in
a March 1656 session of the quarterly courts of Essex County, Richard
Lambert was fined ten shillings for "smoking a pipe of tobacco openly
in the street."^®
Prohibition of tobacco seems to have been ineffective; the account in Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence tells of the heavy reliance of the first settlers on the comforts afforded by smoking. (See note 13, above.)
David H. Flaherty, Privacy in Colonial New England (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1972), 180-83.
^ Flaherty, Privacy. 183.
CO Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Massachusetts, vol. I, 1636-56 (Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1911), 414.
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Use in the streets of tobacco of another sort led European
visitors to write with disgust of American manners: chewing tobacco
was a widespread habit in the colonies, and according to some foreign
accounts, streets in America were covered with tobacco juice and spit
well into the nineteenth century."’® The practice of chewing tobacco
was not restricted to any one class in the colonies, but was enjoyed
by professionals and workers alike. For example, in 1756 John Adams
recorded in his diary that he had "Laid a pair of Gloves with Mrs.
Willard that she would not see me chew tobacco this month."®® Later
the same year The Boston Gazette gave an account of the execution of
a forger names Owen Sullivan, noting that he died unrepentant, one of
his last deeds being that .he "took a large Cud of Tobacco."®^" As the
newspaper account suggests, those who chewed tobacco consumed
considerable amounts of it in each pinch; one may suppose that the
boxes used to hold chewing tobacco were relatively large, also.
If Europeans were horrified by the American practice of
chewing tobacco, they were well accustomed to the third manner in
which Americans consumed the plant: by snuffing. Indeed, though
snuffing was never as widespread in the colonies as it was in Europe,
Esther B. Aresty, The Best Behavior. The Course of Good Manners - from Antiquity to the Present - As Seen Through Courtesy and Etiquette Books (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970), 198.
®® Adams, Diary. 12-13.
®^ The Boston Gazette. May 24, 1756, quoted in George Francis Dow, The Arts and Crafts in New England 1704-1775 (Topsfield, MA: The Wayside Press, 1927, 13.
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some Americans were using snuff by 1700.®^ It was at about this time
that snuffing became hugely popular in fashionable circles in
England. According to an account by Charles Lillie, a famous
perfumer and snuff-seller of the early eighteenth century, English
taste for snuff dated to 1702, when in battles at Vigo Bay and Port
St. Mary the British fleet seized Spanish treasure ships laden with
snuff. Some fifty tons of the snuff were distributed among the
victorious seamen as spoils, and upon their return to England, it
filled the local market. Lillie noted that most Englishmen were
unaccustomed to the type of snuff seized, but concluded that
From [this] quantity of different snuffs. . . distributed throughout the kingdom, novelty being quickly embraced by us in England, arose the custom and fashion of snuff taking.
The habit swept the court and intellectual circles, quickly replacing
smoking as the fashionable means of enjoying tobacco. Queen Anne
herself was an avid snuffer, as were such leaders of society as Beau
Nash and John Dryden.^
However, it would seem that initially the adoption of
snuffing over smoking was largely a London affair. Country squires
remained notoriously attached to their pipes well into the eighteenth
century, and contemporary satirical periodicals suggest that, at
^ Ward, Silver in American Life. 159.
Charles Lillie, The British Perfumer. Snuff-Manufacturer, and Colourman's Guide: Being a Collection of Choice Receipts and Observations. . .. ed. C. Mackenzie (New York: Printed for W. Seaman, 1822), unpaginated.
^ Blakemore, Snuff Boxes. 25-26.
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first, carrying a snuff box outside of London was somewhat out of
place. In a 1709 edition of The Tatler. the editor tells of how he
directed Charles Lillie to draw up licenses permitting men to carry
snuff boxes only as they "pass and repass through the streets and
suburbs of London, or any place within ten miles of it."®® The
following year The Tatler announced with mock horror the appearance
in Edinburgh of "beaux, fops, and coxcombs," and called for these men
to be stripped of their fashionable accessories, including their
canes and snuff boxes.®® That snuffing spread rapidly to a city like
Edinburgh suggests that it soon reached other provincial centers as
well: Bristol and Norwich, Boston and New York.
The custom of taking snuff was introduced into the colonies
by English and Dutch government officials and merchants.®^ Local
leaders soon followed their example; probate inventories speak of
their adoption of snuffing, and their investment in silver boxes in
which to hold the snuff. For example, when Colonel Abraham de
Peyster died in New York in 1728, he left an impressive collection of
plate, including a number of snuff boxes.®® Indeed, two extant boxes
are known to have belonged to members of De Peyster family.
®® The Tatler. no. 103 (Dec. 6, 1709), in Select British Classics (Philadelphia: Samuel F. Bradford and John Conrad & Co., 1803), 24: 308.
®® The Tatler. no 144 (Mar. 11, 1710), in Select British Classics. 25: 148.
®^ Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff Boxes. 49. go Martha Gandy Fales, Early American Silver for the Cautious Collector (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1970), 145.
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One of the De Peyster family boxes is chased with a cupid
and dog and its base is engraved with the name of its owner,
Catharina De Peyster (fig. 3.4).®^ In the colonies both men and
women consumed snuff. The places that some women chose to use their
boxes met with criticism: in 1726 the women of the Society of
Friends of Burlington, New Jersey, were admonished for irreverently
using snuff, and passing their boxes one to the other during
Meetings.^® This practice of taking snuff in church apparently was
widespread, and was met with great enthusiasm in some quarters. In
"Snuff: A Poem," first published in Edinburgh in 1719, James
Arbuckle lauds the introduction of snuff into church services,
believing snuff to be a "friendly Aid" to a long-suffering
congregation:
Oft is it mingled with the Parson's Pray'rs,
And fills dissembling Eyes with real Tears.
And when the holy Drudge on solemn Days
His Talents and Industry displays, . . .
'Tis Snuff that keeps the suffering Flocks awake,
Who patiently resign to hear him speak.^
Its high relief and figurative decoration suggest that the box was made in the Lowlands. It was not unusual for boxes imported from Europe subsequently to be engraved in the colonies. In turn, the box could have been purchased on the Continent for Catharina De Peyster, and engraved there.
Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff Boxes. 7.
^ James Arbuckle, "Snuff: A Poem" (London: Printed for F. Cogan, 1732), 8-9.
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The Scottish indeed were well known in the colonial period for their
love of snuff. Glasgow became one of the chief centers in Britain
for manufacturing and exporting it, and American newspapers of the
eighteenth century are filled with advertisements for fine Scots
snuff. 72 A Making snuff was a long and complex process of cutting,
fermenting, drying, grinding, blending, and scenting tobacco, and
relatively few Americans made the attempt to produce it for the
limited colonial market; most snuff in America was imported.^ Those
colonial entrepreneurs who did make snuff emphasized in their
advertisements the similarity of their product to British ones. Such
is the case with the firm of Maxwell and Williams who moved from
Bristol to open a tobacco-shop in New York, and gave notice that they
had in stock
All sorts of best Scotch and Rappee Snuff, Pigtail, Rag, and fine mild smoking Tobacco. The Public will find upon Trial, the Snuff manufactured by them, to be equal in Quality and Flavour to any imported from Great Britain^
^ Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff Boxes. 8-9.
^ McCausland, Snuff. 81-91.
^ The New-York Journal or the General Advertiser. (Supplement, May 13, 1773), quoted in Gottesman, Arts and Crafts in New York. 315. Other snuff makers appealed to their customers' loyalty to local craftsmen. Thus, in the Boston Gazette of August 16, 1756 an advertisement ran for "the best Snuff. . . by a Master Workman, who was late foreman to the famous Keppin of Glasgow, and worked with him many years, this Snuff, upon Trial, will be found to be at least as good, and much cheaper than any Foreign Snuff, and it is at the same Time a Manufacture of our own. It is therefore presumed that private Interest, as well as a Regard for the Publick, will give it the Preference to any that is Imported from Abroad." (Quoted in Dow, The Arts and Crafts in New England 1704-1775. 280-81.)
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Used here, the term "Scotch snuff" does not speak of a place of
origin, but rather defines the snuff's characteristics as dry, and
probably finely ground and light-colored; this is in contrast to the
"rappee snuff" which would have been akin to damp, English varieties
that usually were ground coarsely.^
Rituals grew up about the taking of snuff, as genteel users
sought to display their courtly grace as they elegantly handled their
box and pinched their snuff in a "ballet of hands. Most polite
snuffers held their box in their left hand, tapped on its lid, so as
to clear its hinge and rim of any loose powder, and then inserted the
forefinger and thumb of their right hand into the box. A dainty
pinch of snuff was raised first to one nostril, and then to the
other. Women sometimes were known to place their snuff on top of one
of their fingernails, and then to lift it to their nose. The
ceremony was completed by flourishing a handkerchief over face,
ruffles and lapels so as to ensure that no flecks of tobacco
remained; special large, printed handkerchiefs were made so as to
help hide the unattractive brown stains left by the tobacco.^ Those
who neglected this final, cleansing step, and left their face and
^ McCausland, Snuff. 88.
Blakemore, Snuff Boxes. 24.
^ McCausland, Snuff. 34-35; M. Braun-Ronsdorf, The History of the Handkerchief (Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis, Publishers, Ltd., 1967), 28-34.
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clothes soiled with residual traces of snuff found themselves objects
of disgust and scorn.
Modish snuffers contrived to go through all the steps of
snuffing with the appearance of graceful ease; such is the case of
Joseph Scrimgoeur, who is shown in his portrait by Thomas
Gainsborough in the act of snuffing (fig. 3.5). He takes his pinch
of snuff with a negligent air, yet nonetheless holds his box lightly
and elegantly crooks his fingers. In fact, this grace was not easily
come by. For those who had not grown up in courtly circles, and so
implicitly learned elegant movement from their surroundings, lessons
were offered. In 1711 The Tatler even ran an advertisement for
specialized classes for those who wished to learn the art of snuffing
"according to the most fashionable Airs and Motions."^® This
instruction was offered at a time when great value was placed on
knowing the proper, fashionable way to go about daily life. Dancing
classes that taught both modish posture and walking, as well as
dancing itself, flourished on both sides of the Atlantic. Indeed, to
know how to do these things was not enough; gentlemen had to seem as
if they had always known them, and so aspired to the careless grace
so admirably demonstrated by Joseph Scrimgoeur.
In the portrait of Scrimgoeur, his silver snuff box is
presented as one of the attributes of a gentlemen, together with his
fine clothes, walking stick, and his attitude of leisured land-
^® The Spectator, no. 144 (Apr. 4, 1712), unpaginated.
The Spectator, no. 138 (Aug. 8 , 1711), unpaginated.
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holding. Snuff boxes were considered among the "ornaments of life,"
needed to present a finished, elegant appearance.®® In the play "The
Platonick Lady," one of the characters, a fashionable young man named
Captain Beaumont, dresses with the assistance of his servant, and
puts on one by one all the modish accessories of his wardrobe:
"Robin, my coat . . . My watch. . . My Sword. . . My Perriwig. . .
My Handkerchief and Snuff-box. So, am I well now. . . ?"®^ A stylish
gentleman no more set foot outside without his snuff box than he did
without his hat or coat. Announcements of lost boxes in colonial
newspapers speak of Americans also following the practice of carrying
snuff boxes about town. For example, a notice in The New-York
Mercury of March 3, 1766 reads: "Lost, or left on one of the Pews in
the Presbyterian Meeting House, an oval Silver Snuff-Box, with a
Mother-o'pearl Top, mark'd with the Letters G./T. CA."®^
Men of the colonial period attributed snuff with many of the
same medicinal and inspirational powers as smoking tobacco. Snuff
was praised for its ability to cure illness, act as an antidote for gO poison, and clear the head. Indeed, tobacco was taken very
seriously by some. This attitude was satirized in period literature,
®® The Tatler. no. 103 (Dec. 6 , 1709), in Select British Classics. 24: 308.
®^ Mrs. Centlivre, "The Platonick Lady," in The Works of the Celebrated M r s . Centlivre. vol. 2 (London: 1760), 197.
®^ The New-York Mercury (Mar. 3, 1766), quoted in Gottesman, The Arts and Crafts in New York. 78.
QO Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff Boxes. 5.
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such as Thomas Brown's "Dialogue I, St. James's Park" of 1688, in
which a character declares
You may say what you please of Coffee, but not a word of Snuff, Mr. Crites, as you value your Reputation, 'tis too sacred a thing to be jested with; you have free liberty. . . to make bold with every thing in the World, excepting Snuff and the Dispensing Power.
Entire volumes of poetry were written to the greater glory
of snuff. Avid users declared that it had mystical powers to inspire
them, to clear their minds and lift their thoughts. In "Snuff: A
Poem" James Arbuckle begs
0 Snuff, do thou my Box abundant fill,
And so supply thy Poet's want of Skill;
Largely thy pungent Particles dispense,
And set a Keener Edge upon his Sense,
Brisk Seeds of Life through all his Nerves diffuse,
And to thy BARD at once be Theme and Muse.
Arbuckle goes on to praise snuff boxes as well as snuff itself. He
recognized that holding and using the box could be powerful tools in
conversation; the attention of an audience was drawn by the speaker
stopping and making listeners wait while he opened his box and took a
pinch of snuff. That which followed the pinch was thus given greater
emphasis.
Thomas Brown, "Dialogue I, St. James's Park," in A Collection of the Dialogues written by Mr. Thomas Brown (London: 1704), 66-67.
Arbuckle, "Snuff," 3.
Arbuckle, "Snuff," 9.
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This habit of playing with a snuff box while speaking was
not met with universal approval. Some dismissed it as an annoying
affectation. In the pages of The Tatler the practice was treated
with contempt; in a session of the editor's "court" a fop is accused
of writing foolish love letters, and stands before the bar taking
snuff. When he is about to be sentenced by the fictitious editor
Isaac Bickerstaff,
he began to beat his snuff-box with a very saucy air; and opening it again, faith Isaac, said he, thou art a very unaccountable, old fellow - Prithee, who gave thee power of life and death? . . .He was going on with this insipid common-place mirth, sometimes opening his box, sometimes shutting it, then viewing the picture on the lid, and then the workmanship of the hinge, when in the midst of his eloquence, I ordered his box to be taken from him, upon which he was immediately struck speechless, and carried off stone-dead.®^
Unable to live without his snuff box, the mind of the fop had been
ruined by his unending use of snuff.
Moralists were concerned less with snuff's effect of the
mind, and more with its effect on the soul. Cotton Mather vehemently
opposed the use of snuff, which he believed to lead to ill-health and
dissolute craving for sensual pleasure. He thundered
How shameful a thing it is, for People of Reason to confess that they can't live easily half an Hour together, without a Delight so sensual, so Trivial, so very Contemptible, as that of Tickling their Olfactory Nerves a little? And even bury themselves alive, in pungent Grains of titillating Dust. . . A very just Motto for the Snuff-box might be, A LEADER TO THE COFFIN. If
®^ The Tatler. no. 110 (Dec. 21, 1709), in Select British Classics. 24: 346-47.
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it be offer'd you, Away with it! I say again, Awav with it!88
For Mather, snuff serviced man's most base desires and endangered his
soul. Unlike smoking tobacco, it had no redeeming qualities
whatsoever and was to be avoided at all costs.
Despite its condemnation by moralists like Mather, tobacco
played a central part in the daily life of colonial Americans.
Colonists turned to tobacco in its various forms for comfort, cure,
inspiration, and pleasure. Tobacco and snuff and their corresponding
boxes were tools for social interaction, their exchange was a
ritualized act of friendship, and their graceful and stylish use was
an index of gentility.
88 Mather, Manuductio. 135.
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Figure 3.2 "Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam," John Greenwood, ca. 1755, oil on bed ticking, 37 3/4 x 75 1/4 inches, The St. Louis Art Museum
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PATCHES
There is rich documentary evidence for the use of patch
boxes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Prints, plays,
essays, sermons, and the boxes themselves speak of the wearing of
patches and of keeping the patches in small containers. These
sources help to define those groups who were using the boxes and
their contents, and provide insight into how the boxes were used and
the attitudes held toward the practice of patching.
However, there is considerable confusion over the precise
definition of a patch box; few scholars can agree about the
characteristics that set patch boxes apart from other small boxes in
general. Indeed, some authors would argue that the form of patch
boxes cannot be distinguished from those of containers used to store
snuff or other small objects; neither size nor shape can be used
alone as proof of the purpose for which a box was made. The general
rule that patch boxes are small, circular, or oval containers does
not hold true in many cases. For example, the mid-eighteenth-century
engraving of "Folly Adorns Withered Old Age with the Charms of Youth"
by the French artist Charles-Antoine Coypel shows an old lady at her
65
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dressing table, clutching a palm-sized, octagonal box filled with
patches (fig. 4.1).
The assertion that "true" patch boxes have tiny mirrors
fitted into the inside of their lids so as to aid in the placement of
patches is not particularly helpful when one is concerned with
American boxes; no American silver box with such a mirror is known to
QQ the writer. 9 Furthermore, a European box with a mirror was not
necessarily a patch box. In "The Double Dealer," a play written by
William Congreve in 1694, a fop named Brisk is concerned about his
appearance, and frets that he has broken the glass that was in the
lid of his snuff box and so cannot examine himself.®®
The way in which a box's lid is fitted to its body seems to
be one of the strongest criteria by which to judge the manner in
which the box was used. In Silver Boxes. Eric Delieb maintains that
all known seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English patch
boxes have lift-off lids.®^ Boxes made for the purpose of holding
snuff would be unlikely to have a removable lid, for it was
considered a mark of gentility to be able to gracefully hold a snuff
box in one hand while taking a pinch of snuff with the other; a
separate lid would hamper the elegant snuffer.
OQ Richard Corson, Fashions in Makeup from Ancient to Modern Times (New York: Universe Books, 1972), 204.
®® William Congreve, "The Double Dealer," in The Comedies of William Congreve, ed. Anthony G. Henderson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 113.
Eric Delieb, Silver Boxes (London: Jenkins, 1968), 19.
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By the mid-eighteenth century, however, patch boxes began to
be manufactured with hinged lids, as well. The box in the Coypel
engraving is shown with its hinged lid swung open. Thus, while a
lift-off lid suggests that a box was not used for snuff, and may well
have been used to hold patches, a box with a hinged cover could have
been used for any number of purposes. It is exceedingly difficult to
judge the purpose for which a particular box was made, and at best,
one sometimes may conjecture a reason, based on the box's history and
decoration, as well as on its general size and type of lid.
Furthermore, one must remember that boxes frequently were used for
purposes other than the one for which they were made; a notice in the
Boston Gazette on December 19, 1757, announced
Taken up in the Street last Thursday, a Silver Snuff Box, with a Mourning Ring in it. The owner may have them again by telling the Marks and paying for this advertisement.
The practice of patching has ancient origins. Roman women
decorated their faces with small, round beauty spots called
QO splenia.J However, with the fall of the Empire, the fashion lost
favor, and only was received in Europe in the late sixteenth century.
In England patching became hugely popular among both men and women in
stylish circles by the mid-seventeenth century, and continued to be
in vogue through the late 1700s.
QO Boston Gazette. Dec. 19, 1757, quoted in George Francis Dow, compiler, The Arts and Crafts in New England 1704-1775 (Topsfield, MA: The Wayside Press, 1927), 61.
^ Corson, Fashions. 56.
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American colonists were well aware of prevailing fashions in
the Old World, and quickly followed the British lead. Advertisements
for patch boxes are scattered throughout colonial newspapers.
Americans had the choice of buying either domestic or imported boxes.
For example, on January 25, 1759 the Pennsylvania Gazette announced
that John Leacock of Philadelphia was selling "patch boxes set in
silver," which recently had arrived from London.®^ In turn, The
South Carolina Gazette of December 28, 1734 reported that
Mr. Lewis Janvier newly come from London, Goldsmith, maketh all sorts of small work in Gold and Silver, particular Snuff boxes, and mends the old ones, also Patch-Boxes, Tooth-picker cases, Sissar-cases, Thimble and Needle cases, Cane-heads, and other things of the best polished w o r k . ^
In addition to patch boxes, patches themselves also were advertised
for sale.
Patches were made from a wide range of material: black
silk, taffeta, velvet, paper, or even extremely thin, perfumed red QC Spanish leather. ° These materials were cut into a variety of shapes
and sizes, and were applied to the face or bosom with mastic. An
English poem, "The Boursse of Reformation" (1640), speaks of the sale
^ The Pennsylvania Gazette. Jan. 25, 1759, quoted in Alfred Coxe Prime, compiler, The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia. Maryland, and South Carolina 1721-1785 (New York: The Walpole Society, 1929), 77.
The South Carolina Gazette. Dec. 28, 1734, in Prime, Arts and Crafts. 76.
Neville Williams, Powder and Paint: A History of the Englishwoman's Toilet. Elizabeth I-Elizabeth II (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1957), 19.
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of ready-cut and gummed patches and suggests the different shapes of
spots available at the time:
Her patches are of every cut,
For pimples and for scarrs,
Here's all the wandering planett signes,
And some oth'fixed starrs
Already gum'd to make them stick
They need no other sky®^
Stars, crescents, crowns, lozenges, hearts, and circles continued to
be in fashion throughout the eighteenth century. Different shapes
were chosen depending on the type of impression one wanted to give.
For example, Horace Walpole writes of seeing Lady Caroline Petersham
at masquerades wearing diamond and crescent-shaped patches so as to
suggest a Turkish slave; Walpole found this very attractive indeed.^®
During the mid-seventeenth century a fashion developed for
wearing large black patches in the shape of a coach and horses, as
may be seen from an illustration after a woodcut from John Bulwer's
Anthronometamorphosis (ca. 1650) (fig. 4.2). A self-styled
"Compassionate Conformist," who wrote a tract denouncing English
vanity, was appalled at such extravagant display and issued a
scathing condemnation of the fashion.
Methinks the Mourning Coach and horses (all in black) and plying in their foreheads, stands ready harnass'd to
^ "The Boursse of Reformation," quoted in Corson, Fashions, 143- 144.
QO 70 Horace Walpole, Letters. quoted in Williams, Powder. 61.
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whirl them to Acheron, though I pity poor Charon for the darkness of the Night, since the Moon on the Cheek is all in Eclipse, and the poor Stars on the Temples are clouded in Sables. And no comfort left him but the Lozenges on the Chin, which if he pleases he may pick off for his C o l d . "
The size of the coach-and-horses patch would dictate the size of the
patch box in which it would have been kept; the small round or oval
container so often associated with patches would have been unable to
hold such a large piece of material.
Horace Walpole, the Compassionate Conformist, and the author
of "The Boursse of Reformation" all speak of the practice of wearing
more than one patch at a time. Indeed, some were criticized for
over-patching, and appearing like the character in Mrs. Centlivre's
play "The Platonick Lady" (1706), who declared that she was wearing
so many spots, that her face looked "just like a plumbcake.To
prevent such an ill-bred appearance, much attention was paid to the
judicious placement of patches.
Indeed, the proper placement of patches was seen as an art
to be studied. Mistakes could be made all too easily. For example,
it was believed that a patch carelessly worn too low on the cheek
could make one appear overweight, while one worn too close to the eye
" Compassionate Conformist, England's vanity: or the Voice of God against the Monstrous Sin of Pride in Dress and Apparel. . . (London: Printed for John Dunton, 1683), 95.
Mrs. Centlivre, "The Platonick Lady," quoted in Willett C. Cunnington and Phillis Cunnington, Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1957), 170.
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could create the illusion of a squint.1®1 Ladies consulted with
friends to determine the most attractive pattern of patches for them
to wear, and solicitous gentlemen were known to offer advice to them,
as well. In David Garrick's play Miss in her Teens (1747), an
attentive gentleman is praised for being greatly concerned with
matters pertaining to a lady's appearance and comfort:
He speaks like a lady for all the world, and never swears, as Mr. Flesh does, but wears nice . . . gloves, and tells me what ribands become my complexion, where to stick my patches, who is the best milliner, where they sell the best tea, and which is the best wash for the face and the best paste for the hands.
It would have taken considerable time and effort to keep up with all
the developments of fashion, so that one could wear patches in a
manner that was the latest style. If one aspired to being in vogue,
one not only had to know the modish shapes, sizes, and patterns of
patches, but also the proper vocabulary associated with patching. In
her satirical Fop-Dictionarv. or. An Alphabetical Catalogue of the
Hard and Foreign Names and Terms of the Art Cosmetick. &c.. together
with their Interpretations, for the Instruction of the Unlearned
(1690), Mary Evelyn mocked the English habit of using French words
in order to sound more elegant and sophisticated. She wrote that the
101 Katherine Morris Lester and Bess Viola Oerke, Accessories of Dress (Peoria, IL: The Manual Arts Press, 1940), 98.
102 Davj.cl Garrick, "Miss in her Teens," quoted in Corson, Fashions. 218.
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French word for flies, "mouches," was used by fashionable people in
referring to patches; only the vulgar used the English term.l®^
In addition, an elaborate vocabulary developed concerning
the placement of patche.,, Names were given to patches worn on
different parts of the face, according to the different character
they gave to the face as a whole; the placement of the spots sent
implicit messages about the particular characteristics with which the
wearer hoped to be associated. Thus, a patch worn near the lip was
called a "coquette" because it made its wearer look flirtatious and
appealing. Similarly, a patch worn beside the mouth was called a
"baiseuse," while one on the nose was considered as "1 'impudent" or
"l'effrontee."104 Again, French was used to lend an air of
continental worldliness to the fashion; some knowledge of French
would have been necessary in order to understand the characteristics
given to each type of patch. The use of such a vocabulary set apart
the learned and genteel.
Indeed, few outsiders of the upper classes could afford to
indulge in the habit of patching; the patches and the boxes in which
they were stored were luxury goods. Furthermore, only those who
enjoyed the luxury of leisure time and acceptance into elite circles
had the opportunity to absorb changing fashions and vocabularies.
ini Mary Evelyn, Mundus Muliebris: or. The Ladies Dressing Room Unlocks and her Toilette Spread. In Burlesque. Together with the Fo p - Dictionarv. Compiled for the Use of the Fair Sex, in The Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn. E s q. F .R .S...... ed. William Upcott (London: Henry Colburn, 1825), 71.
104 Corson, Fashions, 167.
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Those without access to the milieu in which styles easily could make
errors in their dress that set them apart as gauche and foolish.
The center of fashion was London, the home of the court.
Initially, the wearing of patches was associated with London. Yet,
with time, patches came to be seen among the elite in large
provincial towns, as well as in colonial cities like Boston, New
York, and Williamsburg.^®^
Members of the lower orders who chose to wear patches were
met with surprises; in 1662 the diarist Samuel Pepys noted that while
promenading about the London Exchange he came across "one very pretty
Exchange lass with her face full of patches, which was a strange
sight."106 Different types of costume were considered appropriate
for different levels of society. Indeed, during the mid-seventeenth
century, Massachusetts drew up sumptuary legislation that restricted
the wearing of luxury items, such as lace, to the upper classes.
"Aping" the appearance of one's betters was seen as a disrespectful
challenge to their position. Prescriptive literature spoke of the
folly of dressing in a fashion ill-suited to one's position:
But especially, permit not any thing in the outside of your Daughters, which exceeds their Rank and Condition. Severely, yet discreetly, reprehend all their idle Fancies: Shew them what danger they are exposed to, and
1®”* Williams, Powder. 41.
^■®® Samuel Pepys, The Diarv of Samuel Pepvs. 6 vols., ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews (Berkley: University of California Press, 1983), 3: 239 (Oct. 27, 1662).
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how they make themselves but despised by wise Persons, by forgetting themselves.^®^
The appropriate use of patching was by members of the upper
classes, who largely wore them to adorn themselves in public. Great
importance was set on displaying one's gentility and sophistication
at court functions, social gatherings, and while promenading about
town. Samuel Pepys noted on August 30, 1660, that his wife wore
patches when she went to a christening.^-®® Later that same year,
Pepys and his wife travelled to a reception at the palace of
Whitehall, and he commented that his wife "with two or three black
patches on and well dressed," was even more handsome than one of the
princesses present.-*-®9
Patch boxes both were carried by their users and displayed
on dressing tables. In "The Double Dealer" Congreve suggests that
women were in the habit of carrying boxes with them. Brisk frets
that he has a pimple on his face, and is comforted by Lord Froth who
tells him, "Then you must mortify [the pimple] with a Patch; my Wife
shall supply you."-*-*-® Away from her own home, Lady Froth is carrying
patches.
*"®^ Francois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon, Instructions for the Education of a Daughter. . . . Done into English and revised by Dr. George Hickes (London: Jonah Bowyer, 1707), 208-9.
*-®® Pepys, Diarv. 1: 234 (Aug. 30, 1660).
109 Pepys, Diarv. 1: 299 (Nov. 22, 1660).
*-*-® Congreve, "The Double Dealer," 113.
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Patch boxes also were used in the home; Coypel's engraving
shows one being held by a woman at her toilet table (See fig. 4.1).
The place of patch boxes among the extensive array of cosmetics and
containers that could be found on dressing tables is described in
Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock":
And now, unveil'd, the Toilet stand display'd
Each silver Vase in mystic order laid. . .
This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from younder box.
The Tortoise here and Elephant unite,
Transform'd to combs, the speckled, and the white.
Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux.
Elegant dressing tables often were part of the furnishings of a
wealthy colonial household.
English government officials contributed to the spreading of
courtly fashions in colonial America, helping to set the standards of
stylish dress and decorum. For example, those at the court at
Williamsburg strove to capture the elegance of life in fashionable
London. In addition, members of the Penn family were noted for their
stylish dress. In 1665 Samuel Pepys commented that he had visited
Lady Batten and there seen Sir William Penn's daughter Pegg wearing
Alexander Pope, "The Rape of the Lock," in Selected Works. ed. Louis Kronenberger (New York: Random House, Inc., 1951), 59.
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patches for the first time; Pegg Penn was only thirteen years old.H^
One may suppose that the Penn family brought their refined taste in
dress with them to the colonies.
American colonist sought local leaders who would lend a due
sense of polish and dignity to their offices. The pamphlet Further
Ouaeries Upon the Present State of New-English Affairs of ca. 1690
advised Massachusetts voters to elect officials "of good Fashion and
Quality, and such as maintain the due Grandure of a Government. "H3
Modish dress by local leaders and their families could only add to
this sense of grandeur.
Patches were worn for a wide variety of reasons. Not only
did they help to create an impression of formal distinction, but many
believed they increased the beauty and desirability of the wearer.
Some who decorated themselves with patches believed that the spots
made them appear younger and more fashionable, while others used
patches to hide blemishes.
Patches were worn to draw attention to a fair complexion, or
to highlight particularly attractive features. By decorating their
faces with spots, wearers believed they were assuming heavenly,
classical beauty. In the Ladies Dictionary of 1694, readers are
informed that Venus herself had a mole that emphasized her
112 pepyS( Diarv. 6 : 9 (Jan. 13, 1665).
11^ Further Ouaeries Upon the Present State of New-English Affairs, quoted in T. H. Breen, The Character of the Good Ruler. A Study of Puritan Political Ideas in New England. 1630-1730 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970), 176.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77 v loveliness, and that by her example "nature has set a pattern for art
to imitate. gy following the lead of the goddess of love,those
who wore patches could hope to be more appealing to the oppositesex.
Women were encouraged to look their best so as to attract
and keep the affection of men; it was considered a measure of a
woman's love that she be willing to make the effort to increase her
beauty for her man.^^ In William Wycherley's play, "Love in a Wood"
(1671), a gentleman named Mr. Dapperwit waits patiently outside his
mistress' house until she has readied herself to see him. He
explains
Pish, give her but leave to gape, rub her eyes and put on her day-pinner, the long patch under the left eye, awaken the roses on her cheeks with some Spanish wool and warrent her breath with some lemon peel, the door flies off of the hinges and she into my arms. She knows there is as much artifice to keep a victory as to gain it and 'tis a sign she values the conquest of my heart.
That his mistress naturally is a beautiful woman is of no matter to
Dapperwit. Her paint and her patches are imperative, for to him,
"Beauty and art can no more be asunder than love and honour.
Indeed, beauty and artifice were intertwined for men, as well; men
Ladies Dictionary, quoted in Williams, Powder. 170.
John Donne, "That Women Ought to Paint" in Paradoxes and Problems in Selected Prose, ed. Helen Gardner and Timothy Healy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), 8 .
William Wycherley, "Love in a Wood," in The Plavs of William Wycherley, ed. Peter Holland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 55.
Wycherley, "Love in a Wood," 55.
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who wished to please women and be in style frequently wore patches
also.
Patches were believed to make one appear younger, and were
used as a sort of camouflage to cover wrinkles and draw attention
away from the imperfections brought about by aging. Matthew Prior's
poem "Phyllis's Age" (1709) speaks of the success of fashionable
costume in disguising a woman's age:
How old may Phyllis be, You ask,
Whose Beauty thus all Hearts engages?
To Answer is no easie Task;
For She has really two Ages.
Stiff in Brocard, and pinch'd in Stays,
Her Patches, Paint, and Jewels on;
All Day let Envy view her Face;
And Phyllis is but Twenty-one.
Paint, Patches, Jewels laid aside,
At Night Astronomers agree,
The Evening has the Day bely'd
And Phyllis is some Forty-three.
So effective were patches and other cosmetics believed to be in
concealing blemishes and the marks of aging that men were warned not
lift Matthew Prior, "Phyllis's Age" in Poems on Several Occasions, ed. A. R. Waller (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1941), 177.
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to be dazzled by beauty; the lovely face they admired could be merely
a skillful artifice covering any number of defects.
Indeed patches were used to hide not only aging wrinkles,
but everyday blemishes as well. At a time when disease, poor
hygiene, and strange cosmetics ravaged complexions, pimples and scars
often were concealed beneath black spots. Blemishes could be covered
up at home, or extra patches could be added during the day if
problems suddenly arose. Samuel Pepys noted during a performance at
the duke of York's playhouse that he saw the stylish Lady Castlemayne
as
she called to one of her women. . . for a little patch off of her face, and put it into her mouth and wetted it and so clapped it upon her own by the side of her mouth, I suppose she feeling a pimple rising there.^ 0
Despite such a mundane use for patches as the covering of
pimples, the practice of patching for any reason was criticized
harshly in some circles and gently mocked in others. Puritans
especially voiced their horror and concern. Patches were condemned
as contributing to myriad vices, including lust, vanity and
extravagance. Those who wore spots were accused of denigrating God's
handiwork, and being foolish and unattractive; men who used patches
were ridiculed as effeminate fops. During the Interregnum,
Edward War, Female Policy Detected: or The Arts of a Designing Woman Laid Open. . . (New York: 1792), 5.
Pepys, Diarv. 9: 186 (May 5, 1668).
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Parliament took steps to forbid the practice all together.^ 1
However, official disapproval was unable to stop people patching, and
it was left to clergymen, moralists, and satirists to contain the
fashion.
Women who wore patches were charged with deliberately
kindling the lust of the men who saw them. In his fiery treatise The
Loathsomnesse of Long Haire (1654), Thomas Hall rails against such
wickedness, adding that those who patch bear the responsibility not
only for their own damnation, but for those of the men aroused by
their immodest costume, as well. He dismisses patches as the badges
of harlots.^ 2
Wearing patches so as to excite admiration was seen as part
of the deplorable vice of vanity, to which women were seen as
particularly susceptible. The pride women took in their costume and
the time they devoted to dressing was explained by their
inborn violent Desire of pleasing; the ways which lead Men to Authority and Glory being shut to them, they strive to make amends for that Loss by the Graces of their person. And 'tis on this account that the Colour or a Ribbon. the Curl of the Hair, or the setting on a Patch too high or too low. are with them Matters of ------Importance. 171*
William, Powder. 32.
19 9 Thomas Hall, The Loathsomnesse of Long Haire. . . With an Appendix against Painting. Spots. Naked Breasts. &c. (London: J. G. for Nathanael Webb and William Grantham, 1654), 99-101.
The Ladies Library. . .. 2 vols. (London: Mr. Steele, 1714), 1: 71-72.
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Critics of patching found the time and expense devoted to
such female vanity extremely distressing. Moments spent preening and
patching were moments spent away from household jobs; a vain, well-
dressed woman stole time for herself that could be used for the
communal good. Furthermore, she selfishly demanded money of her
husband so as to satisfy her pride. In Female Policy Detected.
Edward Ward mourns
Alas! the pride of a woman is like the dropsy, for as drink increaseth the drought of the one, even so money enlargeth the pride of the other; Thy purse must be always open to feed her fancy, and so thy expenses will be great.
Demanding fine clothes, jewels, and patch boxes, a proud, beautiful
woman easily could drive her husband to poverty and shame.
In addition, patching was denounced for the irreverence it
showed for God's creation. Theologians argued that God in his wisdom
deliberately chose the appearance of each man.^** It was ungrateful
and disrespectful to challenge his purpose by attempting to alter the
way one looked by painting or patching. An illustration from
England's Vanity showing patched women bears the ominous warning that
on the day of Resurrection God would not recognize those who had so
foolishly attempted to improve their appearance (fig. 4.3).
Some critics of patching questioned the belief that wearing
spots could improve one's appearance at all. Thomas Hall likens
Ward, Female Policy. 30.
Ward, Female Policy. 30-31.
Hall, Loathsomnesse. 103.
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patches to the fearful spots of leprosy and the plague, and reminds
his readers of the manner in which those infected with such dreaded
diseased are ostracized. To him, patches were not beauty marks, but
monstrous self-induced deformities.127 Others were less virulent in
their criticism of patching, and merely dismissed the spots as
"blemishes" that sprung up in much the same manner as the pimples
that they so often c o v e r e d . 128
Older women who wore patches frequently were mocked for
foolishly borrowing the trappings of youth. William Hogarth's
engraving of "Morning" (1738) shows a stiff, gaunt old maid making
her way through Covent Garden (fig. 4.4). When seen beside the
fresh, young beauty of the girl to her right, she seems even older,
and the patch high on her cheek becomes even more sadly out of place.
The Ladies Library bluntly warns older women about the folly of their
wearing cosmetics:
How ridiculous is it. . .to confound Age and Youth, to fill up and hide the Breaches of Time with Patches and Paint; to place the gay Decorations of Twenty on a wither'd Carcass of Threescore? yet how many Examples of this kind do we daily meet within the World?12®
To some, graceful, decorous acceptance of age was preferable to
wearing patches in the hopes of appearing younger.
127 Hall, Loathsomnesse. 118-119.
12® The Spectator, no. 54, 1711.
12® The Ladies Library. 1:49.
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Finally, men who wore patches often were ridiculed for being
fussy and effeminate. In Anthropometamorphosis (1650), Bulwer rages
against
the . . . prodigious affectation in the Faces of effeminate Gallants, a bare-headed sect of amorous Idolaters, who of late have begun to wear eye patches and beauty spots, nay painting, with the most tender and phantasticall Ladies.^ 0
Over a century later, men who used patches still were meeting much
the same criticism. P. Dawe's caricature of "The Macaroni" shows a
mincing dandy, wearing immense rosettes on his knees and shoes, a
huge bouquet in his buttonhole, and a patch on his temple (fig 4.5).
Shown beside his dressing table, he has assumed many of the
attributes of a fashionable, vain woman.
Despite being roundly condemned by moralists and satirists
as effeminate, wickedly seductive, and extravagant, patches and patch
boxes continued to be used throughout the Anglo-American world during
the colonial period. Patches were valued for the beauty they lent to
their wearer, and with their containers were used as indices of
gentility and wealth. By wearing patches and carrying patch boxes,
socially ambitious colonists made public statements of their
awareness of London fashion, and drew a link between themselves and
the courtly elite.
Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis. quoted in Corson, Fashions. 144.
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Figure 4.3 Illustration in The Compassionate Conformist's England's Vanity: or the Voice of God against the Monstrous Sin of Pride in Press and Apparel. . . 1683, British Library
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Figure 4.5 "Pantheon Macaroni," Philip Dawe, ca. 1780, mezzotint
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INDICES OF GENTILITY
The New Roval Cyclopaedia and Encyclopaedia (ca. 1788)
defined a gentleman as
a person of good family, or descended of a family which has long borne arms. . . In a figurative sense, the appellation gentleman is given to a person of a courteous, upright, and generous deportment; thus we say, "he behaves like a gentleman," ie. in a becoming manner.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries socially
ambitious landowners, merchants, and tradesmen throughout England and
her colonies aspired to gentlemanly behavior. It was their hope that
by displaying polished manners and graceful bearing they would be
connected with the nobility and assume some of the status of that
courtly class, by conducting themselves with gentility, they sought
both to better their own social standing, and to create social
distance between themselves and their possibly less genteel
neighbors. Thus, gentility was a powerful tool in defining the
social hierarchy within a community.
Ill George Selby Howard, A New Roval Cyclopaedia and Encyclopaedia (London: Printed for Alex Hogg, c. 1788), unpaginated.
91
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Not only were elegance and politeness gauges by which social
standing could be measured, but refined accomplishments, a classical
education, and personal belongings were indices of gentility, as
well. Contemporary prints, essays, poetry, plays, and diaries all
speak of the social ambition prevalent in the colonial period; close
examination of these sources reveals the significant role played by
silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes in displaying and defining
gentility. The possession of a silver box, the ability to use that
box gracefully, and the knowledge to interpret its decoration
correctly all combined to label its fortunate owner as a gentleman.
Patterns of genteel behavior developed in London and
subsequently spread to th^ provinces. The American colonies
participated in the English cultural system, and must be considered
as English provinces in much the same light as Ireland, Scotland, and
the West Country; indeed, the colonies reacted to the evolving code
of gentility virtually as soon as their provincial counterparts in
Britain.Americans119 traveling to Europe, English immigrants, and
imported luxury goods, prints, books, and periodicals all contributed
to the transfer to the colonies of the ideal of genteel cultivation
and the tools necessary for its manifestation.
Wealthy Americans sought to follow the fashions established
in England and requested that friends and relatives visiting London
132 Richard L. Bushman, "American High-Style and Vernacular Cultures,11 in Colonial British America. Essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era, ed. Jack P. Greene and J. R. Poole (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), 366-367.
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send them the accessories needed to keep them in step with the latest
styles. For example, in 1675 Rebecka Symonds of Ipswich,
Massachusetts, wrote to her son, silversmith John Hall, who was in
London, asking that he send her a modish lawn whisk, a sort of fichu,
to wear about her n e c k . *-33 More fully abreast of current London
fashions than his mother, he replied
You sent for a fashionable lawn whisk. But so it is that there is none such now worn, either by gentle or simple, young or old. Instead wherof I have bought a shape and ruffles, which is now the wear of the gravest as well as the young ones; such as go not with naked necks wear black whisk over it, therefore I have not only bought a plain one that you sent for but also a lace one such as are most in fashion. *-3^
Hall went on to advise his mother on other sartorial matters, such as
the wearing of feathers, and her choice in shoes.*^33
Members of the American elite who visited London not only
quickly learned the latest styles in clothing, but had the
opportunity to move in genteel English circles. They observed the
manner in which the gentry behaved and adopted many of their tastes
and concerns. Thus, when he visited London as a young man, Colonel
William Byrd II (1674-1744) of Virginia became the very model of and
English gentleman. He developed an appreciation for urban, courtly
George Francis Dow, Every Dav Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1935), 61.
*-3^ John Hall, letter of May 5, 1675 to his mother Rebecka Symonds, in David Dressy, Coming Over. Migration and Communication between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 231.
*■33 Cressy, Coming, 230-31.
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style and leisure, and loved to attend all the latest comedies.
Indeed, he became a friend of the playwright William Congreve and
wrote bawdy poems and satires of his own about life in London. His
love for literature and a genteel life style continued upon his
return to Virginia. He owned one of the largest libraries in the
colony, and hired a librarian to manage his collection, which
included volumes on philosophy and history, as well as plays, poetry,
and essays.
Just as Americans who visited England brought London
fashions and genteel taste back to the colonies, so too did English
immigrants to the New World carry their culture with them. Members
of the ruling class, accustomed to a life of gentility at home,
introduced polite styles and elegant habits to their colonial
circles. Their effect on the colonial way of life was recognized by
contemporary observers. In 1724 Hugh Jones wrote The Present State
of Virginia, and noted with approval that
The country may be said to be altered and improved in polite living with these few years since the beginning of Colonel Spotswood's government, more than in all the scores of years before that, from its first discovery.137
Governor Spotswood was renowned for finishing the Governor's Palace
at Williamsburg, and for the lavish entertainment he hosted there. H®
13® Clifford Dowdy, The Golden Age. A Climate for Greatness. Virginia 1732-1775 (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1970), 19-22.
1 ^7 Hugh Jones, The Present State of Virginia, quoted in Bushman, "American High-Style," 356.
138 Bushman, "American High-Style," 356.
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Immigrant craftsmen contributed to the spread of gentility,
as well. They brought with them knowledge of the latest styles in
London, as well as the skills needed for manufacturing those
fashions. Thus, silversmiths who moved to America were aware of the
demand in England for small silver boxes, and probably arrived in the
colonies expecting to continue supplying that demand. There are a
number of American boxes extant that were made by immigrant
craftsmen; for example, a tiny round box in the Yale collection
attributed to Edward Webb, a silversmith who trained and worked in
London before coming to Boston in ca. 1709 (See fig. 2.1).^®
Prints and literature imported to the colonies disseminated
the prevailing English styles and taught socially ambitious Americans
the refinements of genteel culture. Colonial newspapers are filled
with the advertisements of American merchants who had prints and maps
for sale that had "lately come from London.Other advertisements
assumed a prior knowledge of fashionable English images, by listing
specific prints by name. For example, in 1759 Nathaniel Warner of
Boston announced that he had a variety of prints in stock, including
portraits of notables such as William Penn and the actor Mr. Gerrick,
It is not believed that Webb arrived in Boston before 1706; he first is mentioned in the city record in 1709. Francis J. Puig, Judith Banister, Gerald W. R. Ward, and David McFadden, English and American Silver in the Collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minneapolis: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1989), 221.
Will. Price, New England Courant. Aug. 13/20, 1722, quoted in George Francis Dow, The Arts and Crafts in New England 1704-1775 (Topsfield, MA: The Wayside Press, 1927), 15.
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and impressions of the "Rake's Progress" and "Harlot's Progress.
It is of interest that both of the listed series of prints by Hogarth
include numerous images of women wearing patches.
Other merchants advertised periodicals and books they had
for sale. Thus, on July 8 , 1760, William Rind announced in the
Maryland Gazette that he had received a new shipment of books from
England. In addition to various histories, essays, and novels, he
reported having copies of The Spectator and The Tatler.^^ These
periodicals were read avidly in the colonies and quickly imitated;
William Byrd, Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and Cotton Mather
are all known to have owned copies of The Spectator, while as early
as 1721 Harvard students were publishing their own periodical, The
Telltale. based on English model.Long after the last issue of
The Spectator was published in 1712, it continued to be recommended
reading for the social elite. Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son in
Dow, Arts and Crafts, xix.
1 AO Thomas J. Wertenbaker, The Golden Age of Colonial Culture. 2nd edition (New York: New York University Press, 1949), 91. The Tatler and The Spectator, published from 1709 to 1711 and 1711 to 1712, respectively, were tremendously successful; indeed, The Spectator enjoyed a daily circulation of some 10,000 copies. Written jointly by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, the periodicals covered political and social news through the use of satirical essays. See Jerome E. Brooks, Tobacco. Its History Illustrated in the Books. Manuscripts, and Engravings in the Library of George Arents. Junior, vol. Ill (New York: Rosenbach Co., 1937-1952), 75.
Bushman, "American High-Style," 358.
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him that he had bound copies of The Spectator in his library
"perfectly at [his] service."1^4
The Tatler and The Spectator are filled with references to
snuff. Sir Richard Steele loved tobacco, and Joseph Addison and he
were friends of Charles Lillie, the noted London perfumer and
tobacconist.The papers include advertisements for Charles
Lillie's wares, and notices for classes offered by Lillie in the
proper use of snuff and the snuff box. For example, on August 8 ,
1711, it was announced that
The Exercise of the Snuff-Box, according to the most fashionable Airs and Motions, in opposition to the Exercise of Fan, will be Taught with the best plain or perfum'd Snuff, at Charles Lillie's, Perfumer...There will be likewise Taught The Ceremony of the Snuff-Box, or Rules for offering Snuff to a Stranger, a Friend, or a Mistress, according to the Degrees of Familiarity or Distance: with an Explanation of the Careless, the Scornful, the Politick, and the Surlv Pinch, and the Gestures proper to each of them.
It is no matter that such advertisements were made tongue in cheek,
for nonetheless they served to reinforce the idea that there were
stylish ways to use snuff boxes. Gentility was something that could
Philip Dormer Stanhope, earl of Chesterfield, Letters Written by the Late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope. Earl of Chesterfield, to his Son. Philip Stanhope. E s q vol 1 (London: 1774), 186.
Steel believed tobacco was the cure for myriad ailments, and the inspiration for elevated thought. See Sir Richard Steele, "On a Tobacco Box," in Poetical Miscellanies. Consisting of Original Poems and Translations... (London: Mr. Steele, 1714), 208-210.
The Spectator, vol. CXXXVIII (August 8 , 1711), unpaginated.
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be acquired through the study of elegant movement and the rules of
social hierarchy.
Americans intent on gentility had a wealth of instructive
books to consult; prescriptive literature flourished during the
eighteenth century. One student of advice manuals was the young
George Washington. At the age of fifteen, he filled a notebook with
maxims on social and moral behavior, many of which he took directly
from an early guide to etiquette, Youth's Behavior, or Decency in
Conversations among Men (ca. 1640). Washington entitled his own
booklet True Happiness, or Rules of Civility.
Whereas Washington's guide focused on moral truths and
specific behaviors to avoid, other etiquette manuals dealt with
issues of graceful movement. One such guide was F. Nivelon's step-
by-step instructions for walking, standing, dancing, and going
through other daily motions in a refined fashion. Nivelon
underscored the importance of an elegant appearance, noting
As the Exterior Part of the human Figure gives the first Impression, it will be no unpleasing Task to adorn that with the amiable qualities of Decency and genteel Behavior, which to accomplish, it will be absolutely necessary to assist the Body and Limbs with Attitudes and
s£r Francis Hawkins translated Youth's Behavior, or Decency in Conversation among Men from French in ca. 1640; its French author's name in unknown, but he has been identified as a member of the Jesuit College of La Fleche, who worked in the late sixteenth century. See Esther B. Aresty, The Best Behavior. The Course of Good Manners - from Antiquity to the Present - As Seen Through Courtesy and Etiquette Books (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970), 113-114.
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Motions easy, free and graceful, and thereby distinguish the polite Gentleman from the rude Rustick.
Those aspiring to gentility should school their bodies to assume the
graceful posture of the courtly class.
Nivelon's manual to gentility included engravings of
polished poses. One plate illustrated the proper stance a gentleman
should take when giving or receiving an object (fig. 5.1). The
accompanying text described in detail just how each part of the body
should move:
The Head, and the Body to the Waist, must incline forwards in a circular, easy Motion, and the Body must rest on the left Leg, that Knee bending, the right Knee strait, and the Ball of the Foot lightly touching the Ground; the right Arm must bend at the Wrist and Elbow to appear a little Circular. . . but at the Time of Offering or Receiving , the Arm must be extended, and the Look directed to the Hand offer'd to, or receiving from, then draw the Hand back, and a little Circular, as above described, and from that Attitude let it fall gently into its proper Place, the left Arm should fall gently by the Side, holding the Hat in a careless, light and easy Manner.
Relying on such complex advice, a gentleman sought to exhibit his
gracefulness when offering or receiving snuff, and would look for
similar refinement in those with whom he shared the tobacco. Status
could be defined by the elegance with which one moved.
Indeed, it was not enough just to display elegant movement;
gentlemen strove for the ideal of easy grace, of making their studied
F. Nivelon, The Rudiments of Genteel Behavior (1737), unpaginated.
Nivelson, Rudiments. unpaginated.
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poses appear unaffected. The Gentleman's Pocket Library (1794)
reminded its readers that
a well-bred man expresses [respect in his movements] naturally and easily, while he who is unused to good company expressed it awkwardly. Study, then, to show that respect which everyone wishes to show, in an easy and graceful way; but this must be learned by observation.
A social aspirant strove to adopt the prescribed poses in a manner
that suggested that they came naturally to him as a result of his
breeding and the illustrious circles in which he travelled.
Personal effects played a large role in defining social
status, as well. Clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics acted as sign-
vehicles in labelling the social class of seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century Americans.Those in elite circles sought to
enforce the notion that there was an appropriate costume for each
class. Sumptuary legislation was created, and moralists wrote
prescriptive tracts reminding Americans of the need to dress in a
manner befitting their station. John Barhard's A Present for an
Apprentice (1749) advised boys that "It is, therefore, wisdom to wear
The Gentleman's Pocket Library (Boston: Printed by W. Spotswood, 1794), 5.
In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1959) Erving Goffman defines sign-vehicles as objects that carry information about an individual. They can give clues about such diverse subjects as their owner's general socioeconomic status, his conception self, and his attitude toward others.
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such apparel as suits your condition; not sordid and beggarly, or
foppish, and conceited."152
Puritan leaders feared their fellow New Englanders imitating
court styles. In 1647 Nathaniel Ward, the minister of Ipswich,
Massachusetts, reprimanded American women for following the vagaries
of French fashion and for dressing above their station. He protested
that he had no objection to women being well-dressed, but viewed an
immoderate interest in clothing as financially ruinous to their
husbands and wasteful of the resources and labor of the colony. He
thundered:
whatever Christianity or Civility will allow I can afford with London measure: but when I hear a nugiperous Gentledame inquire what dress the Queen is in this week, what the nudiustertian fashion of the Court; with egge to be in it in all haste, what ever it be; I look at her as the very gizzard of a trifle, the product of a quarter of a cypher, the epitome of Nothing, fitter to be kickt, if she were of a kickable substance, than either honour'd or humour 'd.^^
As members of a church-state that was intended to be a model for all
Christian communities, the women of Massachusetts had more important
matters with which to concern themselves than following court styles;
those who occupied the City on the Hill should not serve as beacons
of luxurious fashion.
^■52 John Barnard, A Present for an Apprentice: or . a Sure Guide to Gain both Esteem and Estate: with Rules for his Conduct to his Master, and in the World. . .. 4th edition (Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1749), 15.
1 53 Nathaniel Ward, The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam in America (Boston: Printed for Daniel Henchman, 1713), 30.
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Thus, contemporary observers used the costumes of colonial
Americans as a measure of their worldliness and the purity of their
faith. Visiting preacher George Whitefield sadly noted in his
journal of October 12, 1740
Boston is a large populous Place, very wealthy... Ministers and People are obliged to confess, that Love of many is waxed cold. Both, for the Generality, seem'd too much conform'd to the World. There's much of the Pride of Life to be seen in their Assemblies. Jewels, Patches, and Gay Apparel are commonly worn by the female Sex; and even the common People, I observed dress'd up in the Pride of Life.154
Extravagant dress was undesirable overall, but especially was to be
condemned when worn by the lower classes.
Indeed, those in elite New England circles did adopt some of
the very fashions that they condemned for the general population.
For example, in 1675, the General Court denounced long hair for men
as a "dangerous vanity;" however, Puritan leaders such as Jonathan
Winthrop and John Endicott are known to have worn long hair
themselves.155 Different sartorial standards applied to the elite,
and those with spiritual and temporal power in New England assumed
some of the trappings of wealth and authority associated with the
English court.
154 George Whitefield, A Continuation of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield's Journal, from A Few Days after his Arrival at Savannah. June the Fourth to his leaving Stanford, the last Town in New-England. October 29. 1740 (Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1741), 98.
155 Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, The Puritan Oligarchy, the Founding of American Civilazation (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), 174.
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New England clergymen enjoyed considerable status in their
communities, and displayed that status through their fine dress,
silver, and household furnishings. A number of the extant silver
boxes belonged to ministers and their families; one such box, in the
Yale collection, belonged to Sarah Pierpont Edwards, wife of Jonathan
Edwards (fig. 5.2). The Edwards box speaks eloquently of the
transfer of urban, courtly symbols of authority from the style
centers to the frontiers. The box was found in the mid-nineteenth
century in the garden of the Stockbridge farm occupied by the Edwards
following their dismissal by the Northampton Church. In the wilds of
western Massachusetts, surrounded only by the few settlers and
Indians to which her husband ministered, Sarah Edwards continued to
use and display silver that made manifest her family's stature in its
community, and set her family apart from its neighbors.
The American colonies had no noble class. Therefore, birth
alone did not create the elite, and possessions played a tremendous
role in defining the social hierarchy. Those who were socially self-
conscious like the Edwards used their belongings to reinforce social
distinctions between themselves and the rest of their community.
Silver boxes acted as day to day expressions of power, gentility, and
wealth. Both the boxes themselves and their contents spoke of their
owners' social pretensions and their willingness to spend relatively
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limited resources on luxury goods similar to those used in courtly
circles.156
When snuff was first introduced to Europe and the colonies
it was quite rare, and consequently very expensive. To use tobacco
at all spoke of one's wealth and gentility; indeed, in French the
verb oriser or to take snuff has the corollary meaning of to rate
highly or to hold in high esteem.1®^ However, by the mid eighteenth
century supplies of snuff had grown and its price fell until it could
be afforded by all. The Philadelphia Matron Nancy Shippen wrote in a
diary entry of May 28, 1783 that her child became ill when his
nursemaid carelessly let him play with her snuff box. The child
inhaled a great quantity of his nurse's snuff and was overcome with
fever. 1®®
As tobacco became less expensive, it no longer could be
considered as a luxury item nor as an index of gentility. Thus,
self-conscious snuffers had to rely on the containers in which they
carried their tobacco to create desired social distance. By using
precious silver for their small boxes, elite Americans were
dignifying the containers and their contents. Everyday actions of
156 por a discussion of the social ambitions of the rural justices of western Massachusetts and an explanation of the notions of social distance, see Kevin M. Sweeney, "Mansion People, Kinship, Class, and Architecture in Western Massachusetts in the Mid Eighteenth Century," Winterthur Portfolio 19, no. 4 (Winter 1984): 231-255.
1 57 Marguerite-Marie Dubois, Modern French-English Dictionary, ed. William Maxwell Landers (Paris: Librarie Larousse, 1960), unpaginated.
1"*® Nancy Shippen, Nancy Shippen Her Journal Book, ed. Ethel Armes (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott Co., 1935), 150-151.
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snuffing, smoking, or applying cosmetics were invested with
heightened meaning and commanded greater attention.
At their most basic level silver boxes represented tangible
wealth. Plate readily could be melted down and turned into cash.
Thus, holding a silver box was essentially the same as holding money.
Gerald W. R. Ward explained that owning silver objects
represented a practical way of using one's wealth and saving it as well. Since plate could be easily converted to cash, it represented money in the bank while displaying the tastefulness of its owner.
Good taste, physical grace, and economic power were all exhibited as
the boxes were used.
The possessions of silver objects delineated a distinctive
genteel lifestyle. Only some 5 percent of the colonial population is
estimated to have owned silver in any quantity, and consequently its
ownership conferred high status.Those who purchased silver
acquired not only the objects themselves, but also elevated social
^•59 Barbara McLean Ward and Gerald W. R. Ward, eds., Silver in American Life. Selections from the Mabel Bradv Garven and Other Collections at Yale University (New York: The American Federation of Arts, 1979), 34-35.
Ward, Silver in American Life. 15.
Ward, Silver in American Life. 34. However, it should be noted that the symbolic value of silver declined over time during the colonial and Revolutionary eras. In a study of the ownership of silver in Salem, Gerald W. R. Ward argues that the metal became by the early nineteenth century less an index of social standing and more a measure of financial success. See Gerald W. R. Ward, "The Democratization of Precious Metal: A Note on the Ownership of Silver in Salem, 1630-1820)," Essex Institute Historical Collections 126, no. 2 (July 1990): 171-200.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 106 v standing. Their neighbors would respect them more for their
purchase, and, in turn, their self-esteem and pride would grow.^^
Gentility and pride in ownership are common themes in
colonial portraiture. For example, sitters frequently appear holding
a book bespeaking their education and wealth. Many paintings
faithfully depict the sumptuous clothing of their sitters, focusing
attention on the costly silks, laces, and trims that constituted
formal dress. The portrait of Mrs. Mordecai Booth attributed to
William Dering is of special interest in that it depicts the
stylishly dressed lady with a silver tobacco box in her hand (fig.
5,3). Mrs. Booth was the wife of a wealthy southern gentleman who
owned the Belleville Plantation in Gloucester County, Virginia.
Thus, the box perhaps refers to a crop that contributed to her
family's wealth. However, the box speaks of that wealth itself as
eloquently as does her costume. Furthermore, the manner in which she
holds the box at all may well tell of Mrs. Booth's love of using
tobacco.
Social critics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
were acutely aware of the relationship between the possession of
luxury goods and the demonstration of social standing. Fine objects
were understood to be indices of gentility, and owning them was
1 69 Kenneth L. Ames, "Material Culture as Nonverbal Communication: A Historical Case Study," Journal of American Culture 3, no. 4 (Winter 1980): 625. 1 go Wayne Craven, Colonial American Portraiture. The Economic. Religious. Social. Cultural. Philosophical. Scientific, and Aesthetic Foundations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 365.
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considered to be the right of the elite. Thus, in The Complete
Gentleman of 1634, Henry Peacham argued that "among the prerogatives
of the gentleman class [was] the right to have the best material
things. "H*4
In certain elevated circles, owning "the best material
things" was believed not only to be a right, but a duty, as well.
During the early eighteenth century it was suggested that English
ambassadors buy some £3,000 worth of silver plate so that they might
entertain in the grand manner befitting representatives of the
king.*-®^ Representatives of God were expected to own silver, also.
Samuel Sewall gave a silver cup to his daughter, noting that "A
Minister's Wife. . . ought not to be without such a one."^® Just as
silver defined high social standing, so too did high social standing
demand silver.
The decoration, as well as the material, of silver snuff,
tobacco, and patch boxes spoke of their owners' gentility. Americans
who purchased silver commonly sought objects designed in the latest
London style, which would tie them to courtly fashion and hence to
the nobility. Astute craftsmen promised that they were well-versed
Henry Peachman, The Complete Gentleman. (1634), quoted in Edward J. Nygren, "Edward Winslow's Sugar Boxes: Colonial Echoes of Courtly Love," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin. 33, no. 2 (Autumn 1971): 46-48. The Complete Gentleman was known to the colonial American elite, having been listed in A Catalogue of Curious and Valuable Books, which was published in Boston in 1719.
Ward, Silver in American Life. 33.
Samuel Sewall, The Diarv of Samuel Sewall. 1674-1729. vol. 2, ed. M. Halsey Thomas (New York: Farrar, Straus 6e Giroux, 1973), 1063.
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in the newest designs, and immigrant silversmiths frequently drew
attention to their training in London. For example, an advertisement
in The South Carolina Gazette on March 19, 1741, declared
Francis Garden, Engraver, from London, is just arriv'd, and intends to continue here, (if he meets with Encouragement) who engraves in the best Manner, and after the newest fashion, in Gold. Silver, or any kind of Metal, Coats of Arms, etc.
Despite living in a society that was not armigerous,
socially ambitious Americans often aspired to the badges of the
nobility. Unhampered by a Herald's College, they had no qualms about
borrowing English coats of arms to decorate and aggrandize their
homes and their silver. Americans felt free to link themselves
arbitrarily with noble English families of the same name. Thus, a
schoolgirl named Elizabeth Cutts wrote to her father in 1783 about
choosing a needlework pattern, and reported that
I have been to get the Coat Arms prepared for working, and Mr. Gore shewed me two Arms by the name Cutts, the one belonging to a Family from London, and the other from Chesley, both Arms different; and Papa as you chuse I should work your Arms, I should be fond of making no mistake and of working the right^®®
Alfred Coxe Prime, The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia. Maryland and South Carolina 1721-1785 (New York: The Walpole Society, 1929), 19.
^•®® Letter from Elizabeth Cutts to Thomas Cutts, dated April 22, 1783, quoted in Agreeable Situations. Society. Commerce, and Art in Southern Maine. 1780-1830. ed. Laura Fecych Sprague (Kennebunk, Maine: The Brick Store Museum, 1987), 240.
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The Cutts family of Saco, Maine, associated themselves with knightly
gentility, and wanted the arms to make that association more
explicit.
Coats of arms occasionally were used to decorate snuff,
tobacco, and patch boxes. One of the grandest of the colonial boxes
was made by Jacob Hurd for the Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts,
William Dummer (fig. 5.4). The Dummer box is one of a very small
group of gold American boxes, and is richly engraved with the Dummer
arms in a diapered and scrolled cartouche surmounted by a crest. Its
material and decoration draw attention to the economic power and
social aspirations of the Dummer family, and highlight the political
success of William Dummer, himself,
A box in the Yale collection documents the social self-
consciousness of a colonial spiritual leader: the Reverend William
Welsteed (See fig. 3.3). The minister of the New Brick Church in
Boston, Welsteed commissioned the silver-mounted tortoiseshell box
from Joseph Goldthwaite. The Welsteed arms are engraved on a shield
within a scrolling foliate cartouche on which perch rabbits and
squirrels; the whimsy of the animals is balanced by the pretension of
the arms. Welsteed was an important member of his community, and the
decoration of his box points to his assurance in his elevated place
in the social hierarchy. A Puritan minister, Welsteed was one of
Gods elect; a prosperous, genteel Bostonian, he was one of the
secular elect, as well. His fine possessions and gentility could be
understood as outward signs of his inner grace.
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A liberal education and the resultant knowledge of classical
literature were hallmarks of a gentleman.^-®® Educated Americans were
justifiably proud of their intimacy with classical mythology; to be
able to understand allusions to myths placed one in a very select
group. Several silver boxes are decorated with scenes of classical
mythology. Two virtually identical boxes, one in the collection at
Winterthur, the other at Yale, are engraved with cupids in a
townscape (See fig. 2.9). A far more elaborate scene appears on a
box by Bartholomew Schaats (See fig. 2.11). It depicts Ovid's story
of the star-crossed Pyramus and Thisbe, and speaks of the intensity
and fidelity of their mythical love. However, the box would fail as
a love token if its recipient were unable to read its rather grisly
decoration. Therefore, the Schaats box speaks both of the affection
of the colonial couple who exchanged it, and also of their education
and gentility.
Thus, in their decoration, precious material, and adherence
to courtly style, silver snuff, tobacco, and patch boxes acted as
indices of their owner's gentility. Their elegant use told of the
grace of those to whom they belonged, and the fashionably high
standards of the elite circles in which they traveled. By carrying
and using the luxurious boxes, colonial men and women set themselves
apart from the general population who carried objects associated with
their trade or craft. Just as tools were sign-vehicles for
Sweeney, "Mansion People," 242.
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craftsmen, so too were the boxes sign-vehicles for men who possessed
leisure; one cannot work and manipulate a box at the same time.^®
By owning a silver box and using it in an elegant fashion, a
colonial American gentleman implicitly informed observers about his
social standing. Other gentlemen could see the box and be assured
that its owner shared in their code of conduct.Indeed, so potent
a symbol of gentility was the box that in William Wycherley's comedy
The Gentleman Dancing Master (1672), a character is dismissed with
the observation "for being well-bred you shall judge. . .to say no
more, he ne'er carries a snuffbox about with him."*-^
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton, The Meaning of Things. Domestic Symbols and the Self (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 93, discusses the modern tendency to define self through objects of consumption instead of objects of production. In the pre-industrial age, when objects of production played a far larger role in defining self, the possession and display of luxurious objects of consumption, like silver boxes, must have been particularly potent sign-vehicles in defining the elite.
Bushman, "American High Style," 359. Erving Goffman further elaborates on the use of sign-vehicles in defining those about us: "observers can glean clues from. . . conduct and appearance which allows them to apply their previous experience with individuals roughly similar to the one before them, or, more important, to apply untested stereotypes to them." See Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self. 1.
William Wycherley, The Gentleman Dancing-Master, in The Plavs of William Wvcherlev. ed. Peter Holland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 125.
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Figure 5.1 Plate 5 in F. Nivelson's The Rudiments of Genteel Behavior. 1737, Winterthur Library
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 5.3 "Mrs. Mordecai Booth," William Dering, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 inches, Private Collection
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GIFTS OF CONVENTION AND TOKENS OF LOVE
Just as silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes created
social distance between elite colonists and their neighbors, so too
did the boxes create social bonds. Through the exchange of the boxes
and their contents, genteel Americans helped to define their select
social circles, and to confirm the relationships within these
groups. Silver boxes became gifts of convention, having little to
do with either the donor or recipients's taste in cosmetics or
tobacco. Rather, the presentation of a box and the sharing of its
contents became ritualized acts of social interaction.
Tobacco and snuff regularly were shared among friends. A
print after Thomas Rowlandson's watercolor, "The French Coffee-
House," show one gentleman offering his snuff box to another (fig.
6.1). The posture of the recipient echoes that of the donor,
strengthening the link between the two as they engage in a common
activity. Sharing tobacco created a sense of communion, and
1 73 Kenneth L. Ames identifies the goal of social bonding as "creat[ing] or maintain[ing] amiable relations among people or groups of people." See Kenneth L. Ames, "Material Culture as Nonverbal Communication: A Historical Case Study," Journal of American Culture 3, no.4 (Winter 1980): 634.
118
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reaffirmed feelings of affiliation, much as sharing food and drink
would.Indeed, using tobacco and drinking often went hand-in-
hand. On July 27, 1744, Alexander Hamilton described a convivial
evening he spent in Boston:
At night I went to the Physical Club at the Sun Tavern, according to appointment, where we drank punch, smoaked tobacco, and talked of sundry physical matters.
Drinking and smoking together contributed to a sense of camaraderie,
as friends shared the combined stimulation of alcohol and nicotine.
The exchange of tobacco could be seen as an honor as well as
an act of friendship. When a gentleman agreed to share tobacco with
a social inferior, he briefly aggrandized his partner. A satirical
notice in The Tatler highlights the condescension implicit in such an
act:
This is to give notice to all ingenious gentlemen in and about the cities of London and Westminster, who have a mind to be instructed in the noble sciences of music, poetry, and politics. . . . If any young student gives indication of parts, by listening attentively, or asking a pertinent question, one of the professors shall distinguish him, by taking snuff out of his box in the presence of the whole audience.
A temporary social bond thus could be created.
Although sharing patches never became a social ritual like
sharing tobacco, patches nonetheless were exchanged. Samuel Pepys
Ames, "Material Culture as Nonverbal Communication," 635.
Alexander Hamilton, Hamilton's Itinerarium. ed. by Albert Bushell Hart (St. Louis: William K. Bixby, 1907), 142.
The Tatler. no. 88 (Oct. 8, 1709), in Select British Classics, vol. 24 (Philadelphia: Samuel F. Bradford, 1803), 175-176.
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noted in his diary that while at the theater the elegant Lady
Castlemayne borrowed a patch from one of her attendants.
Colonial silver boxes frequently acted as gifts. Silver
objects were favored gifts in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
England and Holland, where they often were used to mark special
occasions, such as christenings, weddings, and anniversaries.
Immigrants to the colonies continued to dignify such rites of passage
with gifts of silver. The intrinsic value assigned to the metal
itself enhanced the worth of the present while it also highlighted
the significance of the occasion.
A small silver box attributed to Edward Webb bears a
donative inscription; its base is engraved "MB Ex dono to EB / Eliza
Brame/ John Glover" (See fig. 2.1). Although the relationship
between "MB" and "EB" is unknown, the box with its inscription thus
explicitly links the two. Through the inscription and the acts of
giving and receiving, the bond between donor and recipient was
affirmed and strengthened.
Samuel Pepys, The Diarv of Samuel Penvs. ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 9: 186 (May, 1668).
1 7fl In his introduction to the exhibition catalogue Marks of Achievement. Four Centuries of American Presentation Silver. Gerald W. R. Ward discusses the manner in which silver, the so-called "gift metal," was used to commemorate special events in the lives of families and other groups, such as teams, businesses, or communities at large. See Gerald W. R. Ward, "Introduction," in David B, Warren, Katherine S. Howe, and Michael K. Brown, Marks of Achievement. Four Centuries of American Presentation Silver, ed. Ellyn Childs Allison (Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 1987), 15-21.
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Long after the box was exchanged, its inscription and
symbolic floral decoration could serve as reminders of the affection
shared by "MB" and "EB," and could evoke memories of times past. In
this manner, the box transcended its use for storage and became a
concrete symbol of the past. Sociologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and
Eugene Rochberg-Halton have studied the evocative nature of objects,
noting that tremendous value can be assigned to things for their
associative power. A single object like a box can lend itself to
both action and contemplation; a box can function as a utilitarian
container and also as an "icon of continuity" that can induce moods
of remembrance of specific events or feelings.
The inscription "John Glover" is of later date than the
other engraving on the box, and any relationship Glover might have
had to "MB" and Eliza Brame is unknown. However, the presence of his
name links Glover to the earlier owners of the box, and helps to
trace the box's ownership over time. Handling the box could have
been an immediate way for Glover to meet the past, as he saw and felt
his name side by side with the earlier inscriptions. Thus, objects
like the box attributed to Webb can be used to create a sense of
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton, The Meaning of Things. Domestic Symbols and the Self (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 97. Gerald W.R. Ward draws the parallel between presentation silver and the family photographs that Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton identified as "icons of continuity." See Gerald W.R. Ward, "Introduction," in Warren, Howe, and Brown, Marks of Achievement. 19.
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belonging to a temporal continuum. Owning and using a box could be a
way to actively cultivate the past.^®®
As discussed above, silver boxes appear to have been used
frequently as love tokens. Their form, engraved decoration, and
inscriptions often speak of their having been designed for such a
purpose. The heart-shaped box by William Whittemore, bearing the
inscription "A K / This is Thine and / Thou art mine 1734,"
exemplifies these gifts (See fig. 2.15). In turn, other boxes are
decorated with hearts, cupids, and flowers symbolic of love and
fidelity.
Contemporary literature tells of the role silver boxes
played in the courtship rituals of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. In the poem Mundus Muliebris. subtitled "A Voyage to
Marryland," Mary Evelyn lists patches and boxes in her catalogue of
the gifts a young man must give his love:
The dressing room and implements,
Of toilet plate, gilt and emboss'd
And several other things of cost.
The table mirror, one glue pot,
One for pomatuma, and what not?. . .
Snuffers and snuff-dish; boxes more,
^-®® Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, The Meaning of Things. 100.
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For powders, patches waters store^®^
Evelyn suggest that a relationship cannot succeed without such gifts.
In turn, silver boxes could be used to display the physical
charms of their owners. In his laudatory verse, "Snuff: A Poem"
(1732) , James Arbuckle describes how snuff and snuff boxes can be
used to fill empty moments. Furthermore, he notes that snuff boxes
are necessary tools for ladies intent on showing themselves to best
advantage and winning new suitors.
Ten Thousand Killing Airs not yet explor'd
Does not the Snuff-Box to the Sex afford?
Her Taper Fingers tap the gay Machine.
How many Charms are in that instant seen?
The fragrant Atoms as her Hand convey,
Its ruddy Hue, her glossy Palm displays,
Her polish'd Arm reflects a lovely White,
And the bright Di'mond spills its Drop of Light.^®^
Like fans, snuff boxes elegantly were manipulated to draw attention
to the beauty and grace of their owners.
In addition, silver boxes were used as indices of affection.
A suitor might demand that his beloved give him her box as proof of
^®^ Mary Evelyn, Mundus Muliebris: or. The Ladies Dressing P.oom Unlock’d, and her Toilette Spread. In Burlesque. Together with the Fop-Dictionarv. Compiled for the Use of the Fair Sex, in The Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn. Es q . F.R.S. . .. ed. William Upcott (London: Henry Colburn, 1825), 707-711.
james Arbuckle, "Snuff: A Poem" (London: Printed for F. Cogan, 1732, 17-18.
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her love. Lady Montagu tells of such an exchange in one of her "Town
Eclogues" (1747). A gentleman describes his conquest:
My Countess is more nice, more artful too,
Affects to fly that I may fierce pursue:
This snuff-box which I begg'd, she still deny'd
And when I strove to snatch it, seem'd to hide;
She laugh'd and fled, and as I sought to seize,
With affectation cramm'd it down her stays:
Yet hop'd she did not place it there unseen,
I press'd her breasts, and pull'd it from between.*-®®
Boxes were used as love trophies in the colonies, as well.
Alexander Hamilton noted that a certain Dr. Keith of Newport was a
great favorite with the ladies of the town. Dr. Keith showed
Hamilton his "cabinet of curiousities" in which he displayed all the
presents he had been given by admiring women; they included trifles
like fans, torn gloves, apron-strings, and snuff-boxes.*-®^
Just as silver boxes were used to confirm social
relationships, so too were they used to solidify political
relationships. For example, freedom boxes silver or gold boxes
holding the city seal periodically were presented by the Common
Council of New York to prominent figures in recognition of service to
the community. Thus, municipal records from 1723 describe the gift
^®® Mary Pierrepont Wortley, Lady Montagu, Six Town Eclogues with some other Poems (London: Printed for M. Cooper, 1747), 12.
*"®^ Hamilton, Hamilton's Itinerarium. 123-24.
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of a freedom box to a Captain Peter Solgard for his bravery in
seeking out and fighting two pirate ships. The box was made by the
town's official silversmith, Charles Le Roux, and decorated with the
arms of the city, and a scene of the sea battle.*-®^ The council
praised Solgard for "not only eas[ing] the City and Province of A
Very great trouble but of A Very Considerable Expence"; the box's
considerable cost of some £23. 19 was mitigated by the City's escape
from the ravaging pirates.*®®
By 1775 the New York City Common Council had presented
twenty-three freedom boxes. Some were given to local heroes, like
Captain Solgard; however, most of the boxes were given to recently
appointed royal governors.*®^ The freedom boxes thus acted to honor
the new crown representatives, while securing amicable relations
between them and the council; the council's gifts, therefore,
represented an investment in its future good standing with the
crown.*®®
*®"* R. T. Haines Halsey, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Silver Used in New York. New Jersey, and the South (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1911), xxxi-xxxii.
*®® Records of the New York City Common Council for 1723, quoted in Halsey, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Silver, xxxi-xxxii.
*®* Warren, Howe, and Brown, Marks of Achievement. 29.
*®® Gift theorists such as Marcel Mauss and Lewis Hyde argue that by accepting a gift one is obliged to reciprocate in some manner. Thus, the New York royal governors who received freedom boxes were somewhat constrained by the gifts to behave with good will toward the local government. See Gerald W. R. Ward, "Introduction," in Warren, Howe, and Brown, Marks of Achievement. 20.
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A snuff box by John Potwine of Boston was a present from a
government official to an individual citizen (fig. 6.2). Its lid is
engraved with scrolling strapwork and the inscription "The Gift of
Govr. Nugent." The box with its inscription thus explicitly links
its owner with the royal representative; the recipient manifestly was
indebted to the governor. The engraving displays the recipient's
elite relationship with the crown representative, and speaks of his
connections to courtly circles.
Thus, colonial silver boxes frequently were used to confirm
social bonds. Political relationships and their attendant
obligations were solidified, familial relationships and the rites of
passage were recognized, and romantic relationships were enhanced, as
donors and recipients were linked through gift-giving. Furthermore,
the boxes functioned as objects of contemplation, evoking memories of
times the donors and recipients shared.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 6.1 "The French Coffee House," ca. 1760, aquatint after watercolor by Thomas Rowlandson.
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CONCLUSION
Thus, it may be seen that colonial silver tobacco, snuff,
and patch boxes served a variety of purposes. The boxes transcended
their manifest function as containers to embrace latent functions as
indices of gentility and tools for social interaction. They were
used both to create social distance, and to create and affirm social
bonds.
The silver boxes acted as sign-vehicles that informed
observers about their owners' socioeconomic status, concept of self,
and attitude toward others. Their very material transformed the
boxes from everyday containers to objects of heightened importance.
Furthermore, the silver served as evidence of the wealth of the box's
owners, while putting distance between those owners and their
neighbors, who possibly used boxes made of more humble materials.
The decoration of the boxes reflected the erudition and
social ambitions of their owners, and their graceful use demonstrated
their owners' knowledge of courtly behavior. The colonial elite
shared the habits of the English elite, so promoting cultural
continuity between the colonies and the mother country; a gentleman
130
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could be recognized by his behavior and his possessions whether he
lived in the Old World or in the New.
The silver boxes were used to strengthen and define social
bonds. Lovers, family members, and government officials presented
the boxes to one another, affirming their various relationships both
in the acts of giving and receiving. When used as gifts to mark
rites of passage, the boxes drew attention to the importance of those
events, and united the donor and recipient in an acknowledgement of
their community's values. In addition, the ritual exchange of the
boxes' contents generated a sense of communion between giver and
receiver.
As manifestations of gentility, and as gifts exchanged
within select circles, colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch
boxes are powerful documents of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
social hierarchy and patterns of social interaction. Future scholars
may well profit from a close reading of colonial estate inventories,
so as to better define specific owners of the boxes. In turn, art
historians perhaps can shed more light on the iconography of the
boxes' decoration and on possible print sources for their designs.
Such studies can help to reconstruct the boxes' various layers of
meaning, for the meanings were potent during the colonial era, and
continue to be powerful for modern students of early American
material culture and social history.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES
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Allestree, Richard. The Ladies Calling, in Two Parts. . . Oxford: At the Theatre, 1673.
Arbuckle, James. "Snuff: A Poem." London: Printed for F. Cogan, 1732.
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