TOBACCO BOXES. 177 



The tobacco boxes of the Seventeenth Century were much 

 larger than those of the present. Some of them held a 

 pound of tobacco besides space for a number of pipes. 



Many of them were made of brass while others were fash- 

 ioned from horn : 



" There is also a simple and ingenious tobacco-box used 

 frequently in ale-houses, c which keeps its own account,' with 

 each smoker and acts also as a money-box. It is kept on 

 parlor tables for the use of all comers ; but none can obtain 

 a pipe-full, till the money is deposited through a hole in the 

 lid. A penny dropped in, causes a bolt to unfasten, and 

 allow the smoker to help himself from a drawer full of 

 tobacco. His honor, is trusted so far as not to take more than 

 his pipe-full, and he is reminded of it by a verse engraved 

 on the lid : 



* The custom is, before you fill, 

 1 To put a penny in the till.' " 



Some of the tobacco boxes were made of silver and beau- 

 tifully engraved with fancy sketches, historical scenes, or 



ENGRAVED BOXES. 



representations of personages, landscapes, flowers, etc. The 

 late Duke of Sussex had a large collection of pipes and 

 tobacco boxes. 



A journal describing them says of the collection : " The 

 Duke of Sussex had a wonderful collection of these, the 

 values attached to some of them being almost fabulous. One 

 example from the work-shop of Vienna long celebrated for 

 this description of art, represented the combat of Hector 

 and Achilles, the cover of the pipe being a golden hemlet 

 cristatus of the Grecian type." Swiss and Tyrolean artists 

 12 



