#snuff boxes

The Portuguese introduced tobacco into southern Africa in the 1500s, and it rapidly became an important part of South African life. By the 1800s, tobacco was widely used and many objects were made for storing, snorting and smoking tobacco.

Whether smoked in a pipe or taken as snuff from a spoon, the consumption of tobacco became a social and spiritual act, celebrating the status and generosity of individuals within a larger group. It was also used as a means of transforming and transporting the body into the realm of the ancestors and communicating with them there.

People usually snorted snuff from a spoon, but some also smoked tobacco in a pipe. The earliest tobacco pipes were delicately carved by San|Bushmen from bone or stone. They had no ‘bowl’, but were simply wider at the smoking end, tapering towards a narrow mouthpiece. In some communities, the length of the pipe stem indicated the smoker’s seniority. Even within a single cultural group, artists produced a wide variety of styles using different materials.

This beaded pipe above was made by a Xhosa artist, and has a detachable stem. As smoking was a communal activity, this allowed the bowl to be passed around while the smoker kept his or her own stem.

Finely ground tobacco, or snuff, was stored in small boxes that were created in many forms. Although highly personal, they were often made to be worn in conspicuous ways, such as pushed into the hair or tucked into an armband or a head-ring, hung round the neck or waist, or even inserted into a pierced earlobe. In wearing a snuffbox so conspicuously, the owner communicated information such as his or her social rank, wealth, ethnicity or marital status.

Above is a snuff-spoon comb which was used to snort tobacco snuff, and also comb hair. These type of objects would have been worn in the hair so that a snuff-spoon was always easily accessible.

Tsonga artists often incorporated snuffboxes into double headrests as shown above. Snuff and headrests were seen as bridges to the spirit world, and the owner might rub snuff on the headrest for the ancestors before he or she lay down.

Discover the history of this fascinating nation in our exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Image captions from top:

Ox-shaped snuffbox, late 1800s.

Beaded pipe, recorded as Xhosa, 19th century.

Beaded snuff box, recorded as Xhosa, 19th century.

Snuff-spoon comb. Recorded as Zulu, c. 1800–1882.

Headrest snuff boxes, recorded as Tsonga, 1850–1899.