SNUFF-SHOP SIGNS. 



251 



tobacco-rasp was that of the snuff-maker. From a bill 

 of 1768 we gather this : it is that of "John Saulle and 

 Pontet, successors to the late James Fribourg, French 

 manufacturer of Rappee Snuff, ready rasp'd or un- 

 rasp'd, at the Crown and Rasp in Pall Mall near the 

 Haymarket, where is sold the right Clerack, St. Do- 

 mingo, Scotch and Spanish Snuff." The sign is given 

 on this bill (which is for "six pounds of Dutch bran at 

 five shillings per pound"*), and is considerably older 

 than the date of the bill. We copy it as a 

 curious specimen of a snuff-shop sign. The 

 Highlander taking a pinch seems to have 

 been introduced about 1745, when the English 

 were attracted to Scottish events; and the 

 fondness of the nation for snuff was noticed. 

 The Irish were equally remarkable in the pre- 

 vious century, for the translator of Everard's Essay on 

 Tobacco (De Herba Panacea, 1659), informs us that : 

 " The Irish are altogether for snuff tobacco to purge 

 their brains." 



The process of pounding snuff is 

 represented in our cut, copied from a 

 shop-bill of Abraham Delvalle of Bury 

 Street, St. Mary Axe, (temp. Geo. II.), 

 who tells us that " he makes and sells 

 at his manufactory in Feather stone 

 Street, Bunhill fields, fine Scotch, Rap- 

 pee, Spanish, and Havannah Snuffs." 



* This "bran" was a coarse kind of snuff made from tobacco leaves 

 pounded in a mortar, but not ground to dust ; see p. 258 ; in Wimble's 

 list, p. 286, several of these snuffs are noted. 



