Snuffbox

Snuffing tobacco has been a well-known custom in our country since the ^16th century. This sniffing is also called nasal lavement and is very unhealthy, we now know. It used to be thought to help against plague, malaria, migraine or hysteria. Tobacco was kept in pretty boxes. Miniature painters applied representations of, for instance, landscapes or historical scenes. Our snuff box shows the doctor, on a visit, taking the patient's pulse on his pocket watch. On the small table is his set of instruments.