244 SNUFF AND SNUFF-BOXES. 



most enthusiastic moments refreshed his nose with a 

 pinch. The daughters of Louis were no enemies to 

 tobacco, as we have seen in our anecdotes in p. 09, 

 and they doubtless had their private snuff-boxes, for 

 the fashion became very general in France by the 

 middle of the century ; and a snuff-box of an elegant 

 material, sometimes decorated with paintings, or re- 

 splendent with precious stones, was part of the neces- 

 sities of a beauty of ton. 



Moliere, in the opening speech uttered by Sganarelle 

 in his Don Juan, makes him laud snuff in a strain 

 of eulogy bordering on hyperbole, as " la passion des 

 honnetes gens." 



Tobacco was reduced to a rough powder at this time 

 by pounding, or by grating, and was known as tabac en 

 poudre or tabac rape ; the latter term we still retain in 

 the name of one kind of snuff — rappee — long after it has 

 ceased to bear its legitimate sense of grated tobacco. 

 The outfit of a snuff-taker was at this period a costly 

 thing, and the tobacco-grater formed of ivory was 

 richly carved with a variety of scroll ornament, enclos- 

 ing fanciful scenes of various kinds. Our cut opposite 

 is copied from a finely sculptured ivory specimen of 

 French manufacture ; it represents Cupid instructed 

 by Venus, whose costume indicates the date of its 

 fabrication to have been about 1G80. Above the 

 figures ornamental scroll-work supports a canopy. 



The form of this implement is semicircular ; the flat 

 side discloses the grater of brass fitted into a groove, 

 and having a receptacle at each end for the tobacco- 



