While a box may be a purely functional device, there is nothign to prevent it also from being decorative or even artistic. Several examples of boxes that have evolved byond function to add a decorative dimension are described.

Work box

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Of the boxes which possess some attraction beyond their immediate purpose the feminine work-box is the most common. It is usually fitted with a tray divided into many small compartments, for needles, reels of silk and cotton and other necessaries of stitchery. The date of its introduction is in considerable doubt, but 17th-century examples have come down to us, with covers of silk, stitched with beads and adorned with embroidery. In the 18th century no lady was without her work-box, and, especially in the second half of that period, much taste and elaborate pains were expended upon the case, which was often exceedingly dainty and elegant. These boxes are ordinarily portable, but sometimes form the top of a table.

Snuff box

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But it is as a receptacle for snuff that the box has taken its most distinguished and artistic forms in Western culture. The snuff-box, which is now little more than a charming relic of a disagreeable practice, was throughout the larger part of the 18th century the indispensable companion of every man of birth and breeding. It long survived his sword, and was in frequent use until nearly the middle of the 19th century.

The jeweller, the enameller and the artist bestowed infinite pains upon what was quite as often a delicate bijou as a piece of utility; fops and great personages possessed numbers of snuff-boxes, rich and more ordinary, their selection being regulated by their dress and by the relative splendour of the occasion. From the cheapest wood that was suitable at one time - potato-pulp was extensively used - to a frame of gold encased with diamonds, a great variety of materials was employed. Tortoise-shell was a favorite, and owing to its limpid lustre it was exceedingly effective. Mother-of-pearl was also used, together with silver, in its natural state or gilded. Costly gold boxes were often enriched with enamels or set with diamonds or other precious stones, and sometimes the lid was adorned with a portrait, a classical vignette, or a tiny portrait miniature, often some choice work by an old master.

After snuff-taking had ceased to be general it lingered for some time among diplomats, either because as Talleyrand explained they found a ceremonious pinch to be a useful aid to reflection in a business interview, or because monarchs retained the habit of bestowing snuff-boxes upon ambassadors and other intermediaries, who could not well be honored in any other way. It is, indeed, to the cessation of the habit of snuff-taking that we may trace much of modern lavishness in the distribution of decorations. To be invited to take a pinch from a monarchs snuff-box was a distinction almost equivalent to having one's ear pulled by Napoleon. At the coronation of George IV of England, Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, the court jewellers, were paid £ 8205 for snuff-boxes for foreign ministers.

Now that the snuffbox is no longer used it is collected by wealthy amateurs or deposited in museums, and especially artistic examples command large sums. George, duke of Cambridge (1819-1904), possessed an important collection; a Louis XV. gold box was sold by auction after his death for £ 2000.