This is an article I wrote on an 18th century forum community on the importance of snuff tobacco in 18th century society.
Tobacco use by today’s standards is often taboo, or frowned upon by society, but as I am sure most of us know, it has not always been like that. In fact, some forms of tobacco use were actually considered elegant and stylish. During the eighteenth century, tobacco use in Europe took on the very fashionable form of snuff.
A stylish man taking snuff from his hand.
Snuff is simply powdered tobacco. It can be plain, or scented with essential oils from herbs, flowers, or fruit. Snuff is gently sniffed (or snuffed) through the nose. The snuff should stay in the front of one’s nose, sniffing too hard (snorting) can cause the snuff to go too far up the nose and hit the throat, thus ruining the lovely sensation that goes along with snuff taking.
A french man taking a pinch from his snuffbox.
Snuff was used as a social medium of self-projection, separating the wealthy aristocracy from the common people, who still smoked their clay pipes.* Snuff taking grew quickly in popularity, and reached proportions which are hardly imaginable today. Like a cane or a fan, the small highly decorated snuffboxes were very fashionable accessories for men and women. Women did not take to the habit of smoking, but they readily took up snuff, as many books on etiquette of the 18th century period refer to proper snuff taking. The wealthy and fashionable not only had different boxes and a variety of flavors of snuff, but many even had a different box for each change of outfit!**
A woman being offered snuff.
Rich fashionable men often would gather with their snuffboxes and offer each other different opinions in snuff etiquette with complicated and fantastic rituals that went along with snuff taking. When having guests, a host would often offer his or her snuffbox from which the guests could take a pinch.
Sources
**Bourne, Ursula "Snuff" C.I. Thomas & Sons. 1990. (Book)
