Fop Antique Treen Snuff / Tobacco box

Fop antique treen snuff boxes are rare pieces to find.

 A fop

was someone who was obsessed with how he looked and what he was wearing. Fobs were always well dressed and would spend hours grooming themselves in front of the mirror and spent a lot of money on nice clothes.

This box has a mirror inside and the carved lid would had  glimpses of the mirror in between the carving, so that the owner could discretely check his appearance.

 There are literary references to fobs going back 350 years. One such is a quote from Henry Fitz-Geffery in 1617 where he says ‘ A spruce coxcomb… that never walken without his looking glass, in a tobacco box or dial set that he may privately conferre with it’.

Dating from the mid to late 1700s, this boxwood box must have been expensive to make. It would have been hollowed out from the solid and has an integral wooden hinge. The box has three circular windows cut into the lid, carved in relief with figures in costume, buildings and foliage backed by mirror glass. On the front back and sides are buildings. Inside the box the lid is mirror-glass, the interior lined with lead to keep the contents in good condition.