Lady Pepperrell's snuff box, Kittery, ca. 1760
Item 6046 info
Maine Historical Society
This snuff box belonged to Mary Hirst Pepperrell, wife of William Pepperrell. Snuff is smokeless tobacco made from ground tobacco leaves.
The lid is carved ivory and the bowl is made from a tiger cowrie seashell. The tiger cowrie lives on the ocean floor in the Indo-Pacific region, from the eastern coast of Africa to the waters of Micronesia and Polynesia. Once common, the cowrie is less abundant in the 21st century, due to shell collecting and the destruction of its habitat. The tiger shell, and possibly the entire snuff box, likely came to Maine on the same boats that participated in the Atlantic slave trade.
When William Pepperrell died in 1759, he willed "any four" of his slaves to his wife. After her death in 1779, Mary Pepperrell's will freed her slaves.
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