A snuffbox is a small container with a hinge, and often with a patina that belongs to the price. Anyone who scours it bright inside scours the collector value away with it. In the overview Security for collectors, it sits with the small metal pieces.

How it leaves

A handful of boxes is a bag. They often lie in a display cabinet among other small stuff, and that is exactly where what shines gets taken. You separate the documented pieces from the decor. The documented ones lie in the cabinet.

What time does to them

Horn cracks in dryness, silver tarnishes on cardboard that gives off sulfur, a hinge breaks when the lid is pressed too far. You do not oil on a guess. You store dry, every box shut, nothing stacked one inside another so that it loads the hinge from the side.

The papers

Material, dimensions, whether lid and bottom belong together, origin, proof. A photo from the side, so the hinge is visible. Inside, a shot before someone "cleans".