A snuff box from Venice — carried home by someone who went. The body is worked entirely from horn, inside and out, shaped when the material was hot and willing, with a hinge so neatly made it disappears. The lid carries a panel of ivory, and set within it, an oval view of the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal: gondolas on blue water, the buildings washed rose and ochre, the whole scene laid over mother-of-pearl so it catches light the way the lagoon does.
This was a Grand Tour souvenir, circa 1840 — made for the traveller who wanted Venice in their pocket, offered round with every pinch of snuff. The horn interior has darkened to near-black from a century and a half of use, taking on the sheen of old lacquer; the ivory panel carries its fine hairlines, the material quietly recording its age. It comes with an old dealer's ticket, handwritten, still tied on with string — a small paper trail of the lives it has passed through.
