Up to Snuff

 

QUESTION: I’ve been fascinated by antique snuff boxes for some time. Most are a bit above my budget, but I’d like to purchase one or two soon. However, I know little about snuff and the origins of these decorative little containers. When did people start taking snuff? And where and where were the first snuff boxes made?

ANSWER: Snuff was a type of smokeless tobacco made from finely ground or pulverized tobacco leaves. Users snorted or "sniffed" it into their nasal cavity by inhaling it lightly after placing a pinch of it either onto the back of their hand, by pinching some between their thumb and index finger, or holding a specially made "snuffing" device.

Friar Ramón Pane, a missionary who came to the New World with Christopher Columbus in 1493, was the first European to witness the inhaling of snuff by the Taino people of Haiti. Until then, tobacco was unknown to Europeans. But by the 1650s, artisans were making small boxes the snuff dry.

Traditional snuff production consisted of a lengthy, multi-step process, in tobacco snuff mills. The selected tobacco leaves were first cured or fermented, which gave it the  individual characteristics and flavor for each type of snuff blend. Many blends of snuff required months to years of special storage to reach the required maturity. Fine snuff consisted of varieties of blended tobacco leaves without the addition of scents. Varieties of spice, piquant, fruit, floral, and mentholated soon followed, either pure or in blends. 

Each snuff manufacturer usually had a variety of unique recipes and blends, as well as special recipes for individual customers. Common flavors also included coffee, chocolate, Bordeaux wine, honey, vanilla, cherry, orange, apricot, plum, camphor, cinnamon, rose and spearmint.

The 18th century witnessed an increase in the use of snuff, especially among the English and French aristocracy. Because it was a small, fine substance, it needed a vessel to contain it. Both snuff and the little boxes that contained it became important expressions of class. Originally made for daily use, snuff boxes became important symbols of personal representation. Snuff taking had become an important marker of social status.

Although men could ingest other forms of tobacco, both men and women could take snuff. Tobacco would often be used by men while socializing in coffeehouses, thus becoming linked to public masculinity.

Taking snuff could be unpleasant, especially if there were a crowd in a room. In the act of ingesting it, a person had to remain dignified. Society considered it rude for snuff takers to make excessive noise making or reaction. Like tea or coffee consumption at this time, it wasn’t only about the substance being ingested: but the ingestion itself that had to adhere to society’s rule.

The manufacture of snuff boxes became a lucrative industry when taking snuff was fashionable. Snuff boxes ranged from those made of horn to ornate designs featuring precious materials made using state-of-the-art techniques. Since prolonged exposure to air caused snuff to dry out and lose its quality, manufacturers designed snuff boxes to be airtight containers with strong hinges, generally large enough to hold a day's worth of snuff. The wealthy kept larger snuff containers, called mulls, on their dinner tables for use at dinner parties. These could be quite elaborate and often included rams horns decorated with silver or in some cases a depiction of the head of a ram.

In the early 18th century, French jewelers created snuff boxes of gold set with diamonds, amethysts, and sapphires. By 1740, specialized artisans took over the production of these ornate tabatières, which they engraved, chased, and enameled. 

The shapes of these boxes weren’t limited to rectangular boxes. Porcelain containers resembling little trunks were popular, as were ovals, but tabatières shaped like shells were more rare. And while the materials used to construct a box were often enough for its decoration, sometimes artisans hand painted these snuff boxes, depicting everything from miniature landscapes and bucolic scenes to tiny portraits or cameos of their owners.

Miniatures often adorned the lids of snuff boxes. These could be scenes from various mythological, Biblical, or pastoral settings, but portraiture was the most common decoration, especially on those boxes given as gifts. It was usually men who adorned the portraiture present on the jewelry of women.

Silver snuff boxes became associated with Sheffield, England, where silver-plating had been perfected on these small containers in the late 18th century. By the early 19th century, the silver industry had blossomed in Birmingham, England, where snuff box makers such as Samuel Pemberton, Nathaniel Mills, and Edward Smith produced oblong containers with images of castles and abbeys on their tops and sides.

Birmingham was also a center for papier-mâché snuff boxes, which manufacturers hardened using several layers of enamel. A market for these inexpensive boxes developed in the United States, so Birmingham box makers began decorating their wares with portraits of U.S. naval heroes and victory scenes from the War of 1812, often using engravings by such renowned American artists as Gilbert Stuart as their source material.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Art Deco World" in the 2024 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

A Silver Alternative

 

QUESTION: As I was browsing a weekly flea market, I came upon a curious silver vase—at least I thought it was silver. But when I picked it up, it felt like glass and was much lighter than silver. The dealer said it was Mercury glass. I never heard of such a thing. Can you tell me more about it?

ANSWER: As the Industrial Revolution gained momentum, the growing middle class wanted inexpensive alternatives to the silver objects owned by the wealthy. One of those alternatives was Mercury glass, first made as an inexpensive silver substitute. Soon it evolved into an art form of its own.

First produced in the late 18th century, Mercury glass was a handblown, double-walled glass with an interior coating of silver-colored metal compounds. It took many forms, including candlesticks, compotes, candy dishes, plates, goblets, wig stands, curtain tiebacks, and doorknobs. Some critics condemned it for looking too much like mirrored glass and too little like silver, which was what people liked about it.

Produced originally from around 1840 until around 1930 in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, and Germany, it spread to England in 1849 when Edward Varnish and Frederick Hale Thomson patented the technique for silvering glass vessels, and continued to be made there until 1855.

Mercury glass, also known as silvered glass, contains neither mercury nor silver. It's actually clear glass, mold-blown into double-walled shapes and coated on the inside with a silvering solution containing silver nitrate and grape sugar, heated, then closed. Sealing methods included metal discs covered with a glass round in England, or a cork inserted into the unpolished pontil scar on the bottom in America. In the beginning a few Bohemian makers tried to line their pieces with a mercury solution, but they stopped using it due to expense and toxicity. However, this is where the name originated.

Companies in the United States, including the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, New England Glass Company Union Glass Company, and the Boston Silver Glass Company, made silvered glass from about 1852 to 1880. The New England Glass Company displayed a variety of silvered glass articles, including copper wheel engraved goblets, vases and other tableware at the 1853 New Crystal Palace Exhibition.

Bohemian Mercury glassmakers decorated their pieces with a variety of techniques including painting, enameling, etching, and surface engraving. Antique historians believe it to be the first true "art glass"---glass made for display and for its artistic value rather than for everyday use.

The peak of Mercury glass’ popularity came in the mid-19th century. Back then, high-quality European and American-made pieces were lightweight, had graceful forms, and came decorated with acid-etched fruit or floral motifs, cut glass designs, and sometimes paint. Young girls, working on assembly lines, painted vases in particular with their own designs of swans, daisies, or leaves. Makers intended the details on their pieces to be equal to the finest decoration on other forms of glass and china.

After briefly falling out of favor, Mercury glass reappeared around 1900 in the form of Christmas ornaments and gazing balls, as well as blown fruits and flowers. Today, most serious collectors concentrate on antique forms, like curtain pins, salt cellars, or pedestal-footed silvered vases.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Art Deco World" in the 2024 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Dishes for Everyday Use

 

QUESTION: I have some dishes that belonged to my grandmother. I believe they’re over 100 years old. Each has a scene in the center in light blue on a white background. From research I’ve done, I know they’re called Staffordshire, but I still haven’t been able to find much about them. Could you tell me something about them, especially the decorative scenes?

ANSWER: Wedgwood & Co., Unicorn & Pinnox,Works, Staffordshire Potteries, not to be confused with Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, made your dishes. They specialized in making earthenware and stoneware pieces for everyday table use from 1860 to1965. Your particular dishes date somewhere from 1860 to 1890. 

Many people think Staffordshire is a company, but it’s actually an English county. Many English potters established themselves there because they found the clays superior to those found elsewhere in England.

In the late 18th century there were as many as 80 different potteries in the Staffordshire district. By 1802, the number had increased to 149. No single company was responsible for manufacturing Staffordshire dishes. Each potter produced his own wares using a different decorative border, featuring medallions, scrolls, lace, shells, flowers, or trees.

Staffordshire potters made their wares from white earthenware pottery found nearby. Workers applied decoration using a method called transfer printing, developed around 1755. They accomplished this inexpensive method by engraving a design onto a copper plate, which they then inked with special ceramic paint and applied to thin paper. Pressing the paper onto the surface left ink behind.

The production of a blue print began with a design on paper. The engraver traced the outline onto thin tissue paper and then reproduced it on a sheet of copper using homemade carbon paper. He engraved over this outline with a V-shaped groove and added the details and areas of shading using lines or dots. The idea of using dots, or stipple punching, rather than lines came later in the 18th century. The engraver found the right depth by trial and error, so he took a first print or proof before he reworked the lines and dots to deepen them if necessary. The deeper the engraving, the deeper the deposits of color, thus the darker the result. 

The next step was printing. A circular iron plate or backstone kept the color—a mixture of metallic oxides and fluxes with printing oils—warm. The printer applied this to the copper plate, which he kept hot on the hot plate, making sure to rub color into every dot and line. The surplus was then scraped off. He removed any film of color by bossing the surface with a corduroy-faced pad. After the copper plate was clean, he laid the tissue paper coated with a mixture of soft soap and water and passed it through the press’s rollers. He then passed the printed image, now in reverse—unlike regular engravings that begin in reverse and appear correct on printing—on to the transfer team, consisting of the transferrer, apprentice, and cutter.

The cutter removed the excess paper leaving only the design pieces. The transferrer laid these pieces, colored by cobalt oxide, on to the ware after its first or biscuit firing, then dipped it in glaze and refired it, where the silica in the glaze helped to convert black cobalt oxide to blue cobalt silicate. A design with an overall pattern would have the center applied first and the border around the rim afterwards. The tackiness of the oily print held it in place while the apprentice rubbed it down vigorously with a stiff-bristled brush using a little soft soap as lubricant.

The apprentice then soaked the earthenware in a tub of water to soften the paper which was removed by sponging, the oil-based color being unaffected by the water. After drying, an assistant placed the ware into the hardening kiln to fire at 1,250-1,290 F. to remove the oils and secure the color. 

After inking each piece, another worker placed the object into a low-temperature kiln to fix the pattern. The printing could be done either under or over the glaze on a ceramic piece, but since the ink tended to wear off on overprinted pieces, potteries switched to glazing the inked surface after the initial firing.

Scenic views of the Orient and of romantic European destinations with castles and towns became popular transfer motifs. The inspiration for these came from classical literature which was popular at the time. The most valuable plates,. however, are those with American scenes, produced between1800 and 1848. Enterprising English potters arranged with artists traveling in America to sketch the sites for their ware. Leading Staffordshire potters like Adams, Clews, Meigh, Ridgway, Stevens, and Wood, plus those from  hundreds of small companies created American views.

The firms manufacturing these wares included Ridgway, Johnson Brothers, Spode and Wedgwood along with many others. Josiah Wedgwood eventually used the transfer process to decorate his familiar ivory Creamware.

Stamps on the back of each piece often indicated the pattern with or without the maker's trademark. Since several companies employed the same patterns, identifying some pieces can be difficult. At first potters used deep cobalt blue and white designs to simulate wares made in China. These remain sentimental favorites in the United States and England. As technology improved, the shade lightened. By 1850, potteries began using other colors, such as pink, red, black, green, brown and purple.

Most transferware patterns sought by collectors today are two-tone. Blue and white, red and white, and brown and white are the most common combinations. Transferware has become increasingly pricey in the last 20 years, mostly due to articles about using it for decoration to liven up today’s bland home interiors. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The  Art Deco World" in the 2024 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Keepers of the Cheese

 

QUESTION: I recently purchased a beautiful Wedgwood Jasperware cheese dome at an annual antiques show. Although I have never thought of collecting cheese keepers, I fell in love with this one. Why did the English make this type of cheese keeper? Was it for all types of cheese? Didn’t cheese need to be refrigerated?

ANSWER: Today, most people eat supermarket cheese, all of which needs to be refrigerated. Even creamy gourmet cheeses need to be kept cold due to their cream content. But some English cheeses, such as cheddar and Stilton, are hard cheeses 

English cheesemaking dates back to around 3800 BCE. But it was the Romans occupying the region in the first decades of the first millennium that brought it into general production by using rennet from ruminant animals to create cheese during the summer months.

Early cheesemaking was a simple procedure,  requiring no more than a couple of bowls, a ladle, a strainer and some hard-won skill to make soft fresh goat or cow's milk cheese. Snowy-white Perroche, made today in Herefordshire, is just such a cheese with a delicate citrus flavor.

Every Roman legionary got an ounce of cheese in his daily ration. With 5,000 men in a legion, that amounted to 5,000 ounces or about 140 kilos a day. Only hard cheese could  be cut into one-ounce pieces. The Romans also introduced large-scale sheep farming to Britain.

Fast forward to the Middle Ages where the feudal system of lords and tenants encouraged centralized cheese production by taking advantage of the labor available through agricultural workers. This cheese fed the lords and their tenants, instead of being traded.

Medieval monks ate lots of cheese. Many monasteries had their own dairies; records from Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire show purchases of rennet. The monks originally brought their expertise with them from France. Their repetitious lifestyle, daily routines, and general scientific interests proved extremely useful in cheesemaking. Most of the cheese made for the monks was probably hard, low-fat cheese, with the cream skimmed off to churn into butter for the abbot’s table. 

Due to the proliferation of sheep in England, farmers used ewe’s milk to make many of the early cheeses. By the 17th century, cows had become the preferred dairy animal, especially in areas with flatter landscapes and excellent grazing conditions which could support larger herds. This increase in herd size enabled farmers to produce more wheels of cheese, allowing them to send their cheeses to town and city markets and aboard. However, local farmers continued to produce cheeses for themselves, leading to the creation of classic cheeses such as Cheshire and Wensleydale. 

Soon Britain became known for its large, hard wheels of cheese, called truckles. A truckle of cheese is a cylindrical wheel of cheese, usually taller than it is wide, and often described as barrel-shaped. The word is derived from the Latin trochlea, meaning “wheel or pulley.” Made in styles with and without additional cream, these cheeses all shared the common practice of using molds lined with cheesecloth to drain curds during the beginning stages of production. 

And while English cheddar is popular today, Cheshire cheese was the predominant cheese produced across England. By the middle of the 17th century, more than 4,000 farms made the crumbly, dense cheese, although the average herd size was only five cows, barely enough to create a wheel of Cheshire a day. In the southwestern parts of the country, however, farms would often combine resources to create gigantic, 120-pound wheels that could handle significant aging, often more than 5 years. The first recorded shipload of Cheshire cheese arrived at the port of London in October 1650 and was an instant hit.

Over the next few hundred years, Cheshire became England’s most popular and widely sold cheese until the late 19th Century when Victorian Cheddar knocked it off its perch. By the beginning of the 20th century, cheddar had become Britain’s top cheese.

Of all the cheese in Britain, Stilton is probably the most revered. The history of the early production of Blue Stilton cheese is unclear, but the “King of English Cheeses’ wasn’t actually produced in the village of Stilton. Historians credit Cooper Thornbill, landlord of the Blue Bell Inn in Stilton, with the earliest marketing of Blue Stilton cheese between 1730 and 1759. Located on the Great North Road, the inn was a popular stopping point for coaches traveling north from London to Edinburgh. Thornhill partnered with Leicestershire cheese maker Frances Pawlett and negotiated arrangements which gave the Bell Inn exclusive rights to market Blue Stilton. Travelers spread the word of this fine cheese upon returning to London. The only downside of Blue Stilton cheese is it pungent aroma.

Victorian dinner parties often included the service of cheese accompanying a salad course just prior to dessert. It was important to keep the cheese covered not only to reduce drying, but also to prevent the pungent smell from permeating the room.

Stilton can only be made in three counties – Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire – and not, oddly enough, in the Cambridgeshire town of Stilton itself. 

The mass production of cheese made it readily available to the poorer classes. Therefore, simple cost-effective storage solutions for cheese gained popularity. Ceramic cheese dishes, or cheese bells, became one of the most common ways to prolong the life of cheese in the home. It remained popular in most households until the introduction of the home refrigerator in 1913

The Victorian passion for blue-veined Stilton cheese was equal to the array of dishes used to serve it. Also known as cheese stands, cheese bells and cheese domes, potteries produced these dishes in a variety of styles. In the early 19th century, Wedgwood was the first to produce a tall cylindrical cover with matching stand intended to accommodate an entire round of Stilton cheese. Most majolica cheese keepers were of this style. Less commonly, majolica cheese stands assume a smaller triangular shape designed to store a single wedge.

The domed covers of majolica cheese keepers were typically decorated in relief with basket weaving, foliage, flowers and occasionally birds. On top of the dome sat a finial composed of a twig, rope, flower blossom or a finely modeled animal figure. The stand or underplate complements the dome both in design and coloration and had a peripheral rim on its upper surface inside which the dome rests.

Many manufacturers made cheese domes. Probably the most well known was Josiah Wedgwood. His Jasperware was the perfect form for a cheese dome. Developed by late 1774, Jasperware comprised a dense white stoneware which accepted colors throughout the entire body.

By December 1774 Wedgwood was able to give a fine white composition any tint of fine blue.' And by January 1775 the stage was set for blue Jasper: After that He was soon able to create almost any shade of blue, plus a beautiful sea green, chocolate brown, and several other colors. Wedgwood decorated his cheese domes with low reliefs of classical figures in white.

And while Wedgwood continued with his classical themes, another potter, George Jones, created elegant designs for his domes, with pastoral decorations in vibrant colors.  

One of Jones’ domes features a waterlily and dragonfly pattern. The pottery made this pattern in both low and tall sizes, as well as with a couple of different handle treatments, the traditional waterlily blossom, and a rarer version with a kingfisher handle. As with all of the Jones domes, it was also made in several colors. Other domes feature different handles with shells, leaves, and snakes.

A Jones dome with a cow and acanthus leaf design features a cow handle on top. 

The pottery used this same cow handle on its Calla Lily dome, part of the larger rare Calla Lily series. One of the most frequently found domes is one with the apple blossom pattern, also part of a larger series.

An unusual cheese dome pattern made by the company was the thatched bee skep cheese keeper in two sizes. Beautiful and very rare, it’ is also one of the most valuable. 

Probably the most famous of Jones’ cheese domes features a fence and daisy design.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The  Vernacular Style" in the 2024 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Descendant of the Laptop

 

QUESTION: On one of my first trips to England, I enjoyed antiquing as I traveled the countryside. In a shop in the Cotswolds, I discovered an unusual box. It had a lid that opened a out into what looked like a sloping writing service. The dealer said it was a 19th-century writing box. This seemed odd to me as many people now do whatever correspondence they need to do on their laptop through Emails or by texting on their smartphone. When and where did these boxes originate and how long were they in use?

ANSWER: While most writing boxes date to the 19th century, they go back even further than that. Victorians carried these boxes with them on trips so they could write letters and postcards back home. When not traveling, many also used them in place of a desk. Essentially, they were the laptops of their day.

Writing boxes date back to the beginning of writing. During the Middle Ages, monks kept their writing materials in special boxes called scriptoriums. Eventually, they mounted these boxes on stands and later added  legs, creating the first desks for doing illuminated manuscripts. But the writing box, itself, survived into the early 20th century.

People used traveling desks or writing boxes throughout the 19th century. When opened, they offered a leathered or velvet slope and rested on a table or over compartments for holding stationery. More luxurious versions included a removable pen tray under which spare nibs and holders could be kept, and screw-top inkwells, usually of glass, on each side. Others offered secret drawers or compartments. 

Before usernames and passwords, professional men kept their valuable documents—deeds, ills, and private letters—in their writing boxes. They didn’t keep these at their desks and always kept them locked. The first writing-boxes like these were descendant from “bible-boxes” and came into being in the 1600s. 

During the second half of the 17th century, craftsmen began to make improvements to these the Bible box, creating a rectangular box with a sloping lid. Such boxes provided a ‘desk on the move’ for such people as merchants, members of the clergy and professional men of the turn of the 18th century. 

In the 18th century, drivers stacked squarish trunks and boxes on the backs of stagecoaches and carriages. A box with a slopping lid didn’t fit this arrangement, forcing passengers to carry it on their lap. 

Eventually, a creative cabinetmaker discovered that if he sliced a rectangle in half, diagonally, and moved the cutting-line so that it was slightly off, when he applied this to a box, he found  when the lid was opened and laid down flat, a complete, compact writing-slope could be created for anyone who wanted to use it. When business was done, the slope was simply folded up into a neat little box. This became the basic form of the writing box for the next 200 years.

Once the form of the writing box became standardized, it became quite common. Their practicality and portability allowed them to be carried on journeys, on long sea-voyages, on military campaigns, scientific and geographic expeditions and even for a trip out of town to visit the Duke for the weekend shooting-party. It was during this time that writing boxes became fine pieces of craftsmanship, handmade by cabinetmakers, carpenters and skilled artisans. They ranged from sturdy, utilitarian pieces with brass-edgings to protect the wooden corners from damage to fine top-of-the line models with inlaid decoration, brass handles, leather writing slopes and plenty of secret compartments.

Writing boxes carried everything a person needed to do business. Most people, however, used them for correspondence. Most included seals and sealing-wax, stamps, a couple of envelopes, notepaper, nibs or quills and a pen-shaft. All writing-boxes also had a dedicated slot or alcove where a sealed inkwell would sit. 

An essential part of any writing box was the glass ink bottles. Before fountain pens appeared around 1895, a dip-pen and inkwell was the only way to go. Before you could get ink that was bottled in safe, screw-top, leakproof bottles, a travelling inkwell, which had a lid that locked securely and a rubber or leather seal to prevent leakage, was the only ink supply you were likely to get. And with the dip-pen shaft came the little box of nibs or ‘pens’ as they were called then, that went with it. 

Their practicality and portability allowed them to be carried on journeys, on long sea voyages, on military campaigns, as well as scientific and geographic expeditions. 

Towards the middle of the 19th century, manufacturers produced wooden writing boxes in enormous quantities to meet a growing demand. They came in all sizes and varieties of wood, including mahogany, burr walnut, rosewood and the more expensive ones in Coromandel wood. Less expensive ones, usually made of thin pine or fruitwood, were a step above an elaborate school pencil box and often decorated with cheaper decals instead of inlay.. 

Makers produced each to various specifications, depending on the intended type and amount of use. An army officer posted to the northwest frontier, for example, would want one robustly built, heavily brass bound, with brass mounted corners and edges to withstand rough treatment. A Victorian lady, on the other hand, might have one made in Tunbridge ware (a type of English marquetry decoration from the spa town of Tunbridge Wells, England) or even papier mache. The more expensive ones had serpentine lids, sometimes inlaid with intricate designs in brass or a mother of pearl or a shield for the owner's initials.

Simpler tourist writing cases in Moroccan leather and lined with satin came equipped with different sizes of stationery, pens, pencils, and a paperknife, but not an inkwell.

The utility of an easily portable box to provide storage for writing materials and a surface on which to write eventually led to the continuing usage of a smaller and more compact box that became very popular in the late 18th century. Known as lap desks or writing slopes, these writing boxes were quite portable, so they could be held on a lap or used at a table. They came with lids, hinged at the front, that slanted upwards towards the back, opening to form a writing surface with only one compartment underneath for storage. 

Before the days of central heating, members of the family could gather by the fire and each work at his own small desk. A lap desk provided each individual with a private place in which to keep letters, paper and writing materials. In those days, ink, quills, paper, sand, wax wafers, and seals were all necessary equipment to use in writing a letter. 

The writing box enjoyed its greatest popularity in days when ladies and gentlemen kept detailed diaries and wrote many letters. Imagine a romantic novelist or poet using just such a box while working in the warmth of a cozy fire. Today, cell phones, laptops, and tablets have made writing boxes and even stationery obsolete. However, as decorative boxes, they're more sought after than ever.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Age of Photography" in the 2023 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.