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I recently found this little box that I can’t understand what is for.
It’s made of different metals, the lower part seems alpacca, while the lid, in two parts, seems of brass and is covered by a thin metal foil, much more white than alpacca.
The most distinctive feature is that the hinge is made from about 150 lamellae, 75 are part of the fixed lid and the same number of the mobile one.
The inside is very deteriorated, as if the box had contained some extremely corrosive chemical.
Does anyone know what this is?
Thanks
Amena

It looks like a tobacco box but perhaps at this size more likely a snuff box?

Hi Amena,

Yes, I also believe it to be a pocket snuffbox, looking at the corrosion, imagine what the snuff tobacco could do with the nostrils of your nose!


Oel.

Hi all
thanks for giving me your opinions
Even to me it seemed like a snuff-box, but I've never seen before a snuffbox with a so complicated hinge and with a so deep corrosion inside. And I've seen a lot of snuffbox.
Furthermore there is the trace of a transverse division, which can be seen in the last picture, that I've never seen in a snuffbox.
These things have put me in doubt.
Regards
Amena

This type of snuff box is not rare. As far as corrosion snuff boxes were usually made with this in mind, so snuff boxes are usually silver gilt, gold, porcelain, stone, or shell. The shape of the snuff allows it to sit in the shallow of the palm.
This type of hinge, must be rare, as I have never seen it. Although normally these boxes have hidden and decorated hinges. It seem very labor intensive for an otherwise modest box.
The division I do not understand, is it seem on the outside of the bottom? Does it show traces of gilding on the inside?
Maurice

Hello Maurice
there are no seams on the outside of the bottom, nor traces of gilding inside .
The inside has a coating that over time it became dark , but do not know what is.
About the corrosion, I posted a request for information on a forum of tobacco sniffers (yes, also this is on the Internet ) . They deny that tobacco can corrode, and one of the contributor says
"Just think of the original boxes in which the tobacco is sold, I keep some for several years and the boxes, also made of metal, are not at all corroded"
It was the type of hinge , so discordant with respect to a base metal box, tin welded, that put me in doubt .
The lid is hollow , and there is a chink where you can insert a piece of paper .

With this system, I tried to clean up the inside of the lid and came out a few small grain that seems sand , but not snuff.
You've convinced me that it is a snuff-box, but a small doubt I have left.
Regards
Amena

Hi,
Smokeless tobacco, like snuff can be corrosive due to the chemicals that are mixed in with the tobacco leaves, and if the tobacco is moisten or wet and left for a long time in a metal box it will slowly eat the metal. Metal corrosion can be slowed down or stopped by tin plating or gold plating.
Alpaca is a copper alloy with nickel and often zinc. Alpaca with a high Ni (nickel) percentage also has a high corrosion resistance; however Alpaca with a lower Ni percentage and more Zn (Zinc) has a far lower corrosion resistance.
And during the long history of the box, who knows what people might have stored in it?


Oel.

Snuff is corrosive, that takes about a 2 second search to find even modern tins that have corroded. People who take snuff have probably corroded their brains to the point that their opinions are worthless.
Obviously your box was lined with something, is it soft? Sand, who knows what ended up inside over time, it is a snuff box.
I am more interested in the hinge. One possibility I came up with is that it would give the hinge lateral movement. I would love to have it in hand to see for myself. Normally a hinge allows little tolerance. But it seems to me that yours might be able to be pushed from side to side easily, to allow it to fit with the bottom
perfectly. I know this is a subjective question, but do you think it moves more easily from side to side as you bring the lid down?
Maurice

Hello Maurice,
the inner lining is not soft, does not seem tin.
The hinge does not allow any lateral play (movement), is firmly welded to both sides of the lid.
Me too, I'd like a lot to give it in your hands, so to have a more accurate opinion.
Who knows, if you come once in Italy ...
Regards
Amena

I lived in Italy in my youth, but I am afraid European travel is not on my future agenda.
I really cannot explain the hinge, except perhaps as decoration, or experimentation.
The lining could be explained as something more resistant to corrosion.
Maurice