# Securing snuffboxes: lid, hinge, and the patina inside

> Securing snuffboxes: do not scrape out the patina, do not oil the hinge on a guess, list box and lid as one piece.
> Quelle: https://tresorrari.de/artikel/schnupftabakdosen-sichern · Stand: 2026-10-01 · Tresorrari Redaktion

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](/artikel/sicherheit-fuer-sammler), 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".


## Häufige Fragen

### May I clean a box inside?

No, if the patina belongs to the piece. Dust yes, scouring no.

### Found a loose lid, what now?

List it as incomplete. Do not press a foreign lid to fit.

### Stacked or one by one?

One by one, so the hinge does not take a side load.