Colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes: their manifest and latent functions
Date
1991
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes are powerful documents of the patterns of social interaction and hierarchy in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. The purpose of this study is to examine the functions of the boxes, to identify their users, to categorize their decoration and form, and to consider the symbolic value with which they were invested. ☐ The study draws on the silver boxes themselves, taken together with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literary sources such as essays, sermons, poems, and diaries. Contemporary prints also are helpful in defining the various uses of the boxes, and the attitudes held about them, their contents, and those who used them. ☐ The silver boxes prove to have transcended their manifest function as containers to embrace latent functions as indices of gentility and tools for social interaction. They were used both to create social distance, and to create and affirm social bonds. They acted as sign-vehicles that informed observers about their owners' socioeconomic status, concept of self, and attitude toward others. The boxes' decoration reflected the erudition and social ambitions of their owners, and their graceful use demonstrated their owners' knowledge of courtly behavior. In addition, exchange of the boxes was used to strengthen and define social bonds. ☐ Thus, colonial silver tobacco, snuff, and patch boxes served a variety of purposes and contained many layers of meaning. Their meanings were potent during the colonial era, and continue to be powerful for modern students as they strive to better understand early American material culture and social history.