Snuffbox 1700 - 1725

Curator: This diminutive "Snuffbox," created between 1700 and 1725, resides here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s wrought from silver, employing techniques of carving and sculpture. Editor: My first impression is the overwhelming sense of…fussiness. All those swirling silver details. I can almost feel the cold metal against my fingers and yet also the overwhelming complexity. Curator: Fussiness may indeed be a fair assessment given its Rococo sensibilities! Look closely at the figuration; genre-painting scenes meticulously worked into this object of adornment. Doesn't it remind you of powdered wigs and courtly intrigues? Editor: Well, intrigue happens in rooms, which this object represents... But thinking materially, imagine the labor. Each line painstakingly chased, shaped, fitted. High skill on display here. Where do you situate such dedicated work when thinking about culture and power? Curator: Precisely! It reflects not only a certain lifestyle but also social memory. The symbolism of luxury, and refinement all captured in silver... a symbol of a cultural moment. It's designed to signal wealth and sophistication but there's something undeniably attractive, visually arresting too. Editor: Yes. But it’s fascinating that silver takes on the task of conveying that message of status. So much skill, embedded in extractive means of gaining materials, gets deployed just so one may more pleasurably enjoy powdered tobacco! Is that also "civilized memory?" Curator: Fair point. But consider, even now, luxury functions similarly, doesn't it? Perhaps the silver box holds a mirror up to our current desires and valuations. What continuities do you see between now and then? Editor: Today we might consume something shiny made by complex labor practices and then throw the packaging “away.” Snuff, silver, and class… it’s a compelling if slightly unsettling, insight into what drives material culture. Curator: Indeed, something small, portable, yet profound! Editor: Food for thought indeed…a curious token of time gone.