A brief history of the snuff spoon

A Brief History of the Snuff Spoon

The tiny implement that's been helping refined degenerates indulge for over 500 years.

It started, as most good things do, in the Americas.

Taking snuff — finely ground tobacco inhaled through the nostrils — originated in the Americas and arrived in Europe following Columbus's second voyage in the 1490s. The Spanish brought it back first, then the French got hold of it. When the French Queen and scion of a Florentine Finance Chad dynasty Catherine de' Medici declared it a miracle cure for headaches in the 1560s — on the recommendation of a diplomat named John Nicot, who would later give his name to nicotine (damn that's a new one for me) — the fashion spread rapidly across Europe.

By the 1700s, snuff wasn't just a habit. It was a statement.

The Georgian Golden Age

By the 1700s, snuff was considered a luxury product and a mark of refinement. The snuff box became the ultimate status accessory — encrusted with amethysts, sapphires and diamonds, enamelled, engraved, hand-painted with tiny portraits and miniature landscapes. Napoleon gifted solid gold monogrammed snuff boxes to 100 of his closest allies. Louis XVI gave Benjamin Franklin one encrusted with diamonds and the King's own portrait.

And then came the spoon.

The snuff spoon ensured that snuff taking was more elegant and refined. Most were small, with tiny holes in the bowl to sift the powder — controlling the amount taken, aerating the snuff, and allowing any excess to fall back into the box without waste. Crafted from silver, gold, bone, ivory and horn, they were objects of extraordinary craftsmanship at a scale of just a few centimetres. 

The stereotypical image of the snuff taker is the Georgian dandy — but it crossed every boundary. King George III's queen was so fond of snuff she earned the nickname "Snuffy Charlotte." Madame Tussaud took it. Poets wrote odes to it. It was, for a century, the most socially acceptable — and socially required — indulgence in polite society.