| Description
| Provenance note written by George P. Gardiner, relating to cowrie shell snuff box belonging to H. Smith or Hugh Smith who was a shoemaker in Duke Street Hamilton - provenance note reads 'This snuff box belonged to my great grandfather Hugh Smith whose daughter Catherine Smith married my grandfather Robert Gardiner. Hugh Smith was a shoemaker in Duke Street Hamilton and was also, I understand, the beadle of the Old Parish Church in Hamilton for some time. My grandmother was born about 1850 and my father told me that the half sixpence in the snuff box was to take the place of a ring when his grandparents became engaged to be married. This date was obviously 1845. As cowrie shell boxes were extremely popular in Scotland in the late 1700s and early 1800s, this snuff box may have belonged to a member of an earlier generation after whom my great grandfather was named' |
