Erotic Snuff Box for £40,000 to Make Sweet Music at Bonhams
Published November 6th, 2007
AntiquesPublicity.com - Bonhams is to sell a musical snuff box with a difference- the demure casing conceals an erotically charged scene that would make many blush. The box goes on sale in Knightsbridge on 20 November in the Mechanical Music Sale and is estimated to fetch between £30,000-40,000.
The box can be dated to around 1830, about the time when it became common practice for ladies to withdraw from the dining room after supper and leave the gentlemen to their cigars and brandy. Snuff, a type of smokeless tobacco, was extremely fashionable at this time. A gentleman would present his snuff box after dinner and pass it around to his male companions.
This particular snuff box would have been considered the ultimate boys toy and would no doubt have sparked much titillation. From the outside casing the snuff box seems quite innocent but on opening it the recipient would have had quite a surprise- the painted enamel depicts two couples standing in a classical garden in explicitly sexual poses.
The inclusion of the snuff box in the sale seems particularly apt in the light of the current exhibition at the Barbican entitled “Seduced: Art and Sex form Antiquity to Now”. The exhibition aims to explore the boundaries between art and sex and the way in which the two have been combined over the centuries.
A more explicit image of the box is available on request.
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