Snuff Box | Yale University Art Gallery

ca. 1750–60

On view, 1st floor, American Decorative Arts before 1900

Medium: Silver, cowry shell
Dimensions: 3 1/8 × 1 15/16 × 1 in. (7.94 × 4.9 × 2.54 cm)
Credit Line: Mabel Brady Garvan Collection
Accession Number: 1930.1322
Geography: Made in Boston, Massachusetts
Culture: American
Period: 18th century
Classification: Containers
Disclaimer: Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

Possibly originally owned by Robert Calef; possibly to Mary Calef; possibly Lucretia Strasey; Francis P. Garvan (1875 - 1937), New York; gift in 1930 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.

Bibliography

Alexandra Ward, "Pocketing the Exotic: Yale's Cowrie-Shell Snuffbox," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2019), 40–47, fig. 1, 4

Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998), 756

Kathryn C. Buhler and Graham Hood, American Silver in the Yale University Art Gallery, 2 vols. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1970), vol. 1, p. 162, no. 206

Object copyright

No Copyright - United States

Additional information

Object/Work type

snuffboxes

Marks

"D:PARKER" [Roman] in rectangle (inside lid).

Inscriptions

“Robert Calef / to / Mary Calef ”; engraved on face; a later inscription scratched into the surface reads, “Lucretia Hussey / L. H. 1748 / 1748.”

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF: Open in Mirador

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