Why are so many listed as snuff boxes?

The heading gathers several kinds of small lidded box. Snuff wording dominates, appearing in 46 of 121 titles against 16 that say patch. Trinket, powder, vinaigrette and bonbonniere boxes sit under the same label, so the group is wider than the name suggests.

What period do these boxes come from?

The long 18th and 19th centuries. Dealers' dating gives 19th Century 31 times, 18th Century 19 and Georgian 16, with smaller runs of Victorian, Edwardian, 1900s, 1920s and 1930s entries. Where a clean year is recorded, the field spans 1800 to 1950. Only 28 of the 121 listings carry one.

Which materials turn up in this category?

Enamel on copper leads, then silver and silver-gilt, then gold, including 18ct and 15ct and vari-coloured work. Turned wood covers boxwood, rosewood and laburnum. The snuff boxes bring in tortoiseshell, horn, coquilla nut, abalone shell, papier-mache, burr walnut, ebony and pressed maple. Coquilla nut, birch, Bakelite and damascene each appear once.

How many come to market each year?

Around fourteen a year on Sellingantiques, from a category that fifty-five dealers have listed in. That works out at most dealers handling one and not returning to them.

Are pill boxes from outside Britain listed?

British pieces dominate, and French is the commonest non-British origin, in 8 titles. Beyond that the archive holds single examples: a Chinese Beijing enamel snuff box, a Chinese coromandel and ivory patch box, a Japanese cloisonne box and a Swedish carved oak box, plus two Russian silver-gilt enamel boxes.

What are pill rounders and silverers?

Apothecary's tools rather than containers. A pill rounder is a boxwood implement for rolling out and forming hand-made pills; a silverer is a small turned vessel in which pills were coated with silver leaf. They make up a small corner of the group, almost entirely in the archive. One 19th-century boxwood container held ten smaller containers inside it.