Antique Treen Snuff Shoes - a collectors dream

Snuff shoe boxes are a fascinating field. There were a large variety of snuff shoes made and it is a collector’s field in its own right.

But who actually made these antique treen snuff shoe boxes?

The snuff shoes vary in quality so much that I feel that they were made by a variety of people. From Prisoners of War whilst in the British prisons,  by the makers of  the wooden shoe lasts and also possibly by the cobblers themselves who were very skilful with wood. Some were undoubtably home made and are unique and charming because of it.

The double snuff shoes are always worth looking out for. Almost certainly made as wedding gifts, some are inlaid with bone hearts and diamonds, particularly the prisoner of war examples.

The brass pique work decoration seen on some of the better quality snuff shoes give us more clues that they were given as love tokens, brass nail words such as LOVE or MY ONLY LOVE confirms the association of shoes with love and marriage.

Sometimes there are dates on these antique treen snuff shoes, this helps us to date, by the style of the shoes, other undated snuff boxes.

 Look out for the trick snuff shoes where when you slide the lid off a snake pops out!!! There are puzzle shoes where there is a trick opening. Lids maybe on the top or less commonly on the sole of the shoe.

Different lids are interesting some are hinged, some slide out and some pull off. The lids can have glazed windows with mirrors for a lock of hair. They can be carved with animal heads on the lids, names, even small portraits. Occasionally you come across examples with painted flowers on, probably Dutch in origin see image below.

The image below shows a pair of antique treen snuff shoe boxes, these are unusual to still find , usually they became separated.

The snuff shoe below has a sliding lid, the nice feature besides the pique work is the underside of the snuff shoe. The shoe has a metal cap and toes.

This small snuff shoe has a brass inlaid diamond and heart, both symbols of love.

These are just a few snuff shoes that can be found. There are so many more. Each antique treen snuff shoe is different in some way and makes a fascinating field to collect.