Earlyish 19th Century Lacquered Snuff Box in Tortoiseshell Paint balancing in very slight relief

in very slight relief

"get a load of that

The Smithsonian Museum of Art (among many other institutions including the American Folk Art Museum) has a terrific collection of his work

with its big dark sky enveloping what looks like a western frontier structure to me

and there are two that are chipped

Earlyish 19th Century Lacquered Snuff Box in Tortoiseshell Paint balancing in very slight reliefI'm glad for tobacco in the sense that it gave rise to so many lovely snuff boxes to love now. And with so many produced in such variety, quite a nice and endlessly rewarding! thing to collect. It's the cumulative effect of shape and scalloped lid and lacquered surface on this one that does it for me making the hinged, papier mache box look not just like tortoiseshell, but in fact rather like the shell of a tortoise (as if his head and tail might