Can I put pills in an old silver one?

You can use them for pills. Silver boxes often feature a gilded interior. Wash the inside with warm soapy water first. A modern liner keeps your medicine from touching the bare metal if the inner surface is worn.

How do you clean tarnished tortoiseshell snuff boxes?

Do not use chemical cleaners. Tortoiseshell is organic and sensitive to harsh solvents. A soft cloth is usually enough to remove surface dust and finger marks. A tiny drop of mineral oil on a cloth restores the shine if the surface looks dull. Wipe off any excess straight away. Keep water away from the hinge area where it meets the shell.

I found a small oval box with a hinge in my grandfather's things and I was wondering if it originally had a little spoon inside it?

Snuff boxes rarely held spoons. People generally took a pinch directly with their fingers or tipped a small amount onto the back of their hand. Spoons were sometimes used for specific blends, but these were kept separate on a chatelaine or in a different pocket. Boxes built with internal spoons belong to different tableware categories.

The lid on the wooden box I bought at a car boot sale is stuck fast and I am worried about breaking it if I pull too hard, what should I do?

Leave it alone in a dry room. Wooden joints swell in damp air and shrink when dried out. Never pry a wooden lid with a knife. The edge will splinter.

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Antique Snuff Boxes in South West

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These small pocket-sized containers were made from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries with tight-fitting lids designed specifically to keep powdered tobacco dry and fresh.