POST MEDIEVAL CANDLE SNUFFER

1600

Fragment of a post-medieval copper alloy candle snuffer: one sub-triangular L-sectioned "blade" or terminal only. The front is moulded with a facing human bust beneath a foliar motif, the face in relief and the other elements in counter-relief. Fine detail has been added by engraving. Extremely similar to a less incomplete example found in 1998 at Beeston with Bittering, Norfolk (HER 33606), and to a complete one "discovered in an old house at Corton, in Dorset, in 1768, and were described by a writer towards the close of the eighteenth century thus: "They are of brass and weigh about 6 ounces. Their construction consists of two equilateral cavities, by the edges of which the snuff is cut off and received into the cavity from which it is not got out without much trouble" " (Burgess 1914, 68, fig. 17). The illustration of the Dorset snuffer shows handles of the exact form and decoration as a single handle from Salfords and Sidlow, Surrey (SUR-31DA06). Length >55mm. Width 21mm. Thickness 19.5mm. Probably 17th century