would you not get severe nicotine poisoning from actually really eating bigger ammounts of snuff…? ches its probably about the social side of it. being mostly in public it probably was like at least three pinches shared for every pinch he had.
I have no idea if this is actually true but I read somewhere that virtuoso guitar player Eric Clapton used snuff. Wish I could remember the source.
With the Napolean thing you have to remember that he was the head of state. I believe that the sources are not that exact (remember it was nothing unusual to take it then, its like coffee drinkers today) and its probably more likely that he ordered several Kg a month as opposed to actually using it himself. Maybe a good part of that was given to other dignitaries and high ranking army officers as gifts? Someone here once calculated the amount he would have to put up his nose a day and it whilst it was feasible he would have had to spend a good part of his day with his head in is snuff box.
Boyd Rice “industrial-music maven, media provocateur, and dabbler in fascism and satanism” takes snuff - in fact a picture of him with a tin of Gawith Apricot was posted on here a while back. He’s rather more infamous than famous, though.
Philip K. Dick. “He dips his fingers into the tin of Dean Swift Snuff and sniffs it. He mentions Dean Swift snuff in some of his novels, and the company is grateful. Once in a while, he sends them a check for $20, and they send him about $100 worth of snuff. They have a variety of formulas, and one of Phil’s favorites is Mrs. Siddons. My personal favorite is Dean’s Own.”
I think if famous people did snuff, they probably would keep it to themself, as it’s an evil tobacco product, and may be a bad image for the children.
One of my Heros George Washington was a snuffer and I’m sure most of our founding fathers snuffed also as they where cultivators and conossieurs of tobacco and weed
It was just the norm then, that’s all.
Anybody have anything on Nostradamus? I wonder what he was sniffing!
Maybe computer cleaner aerosol cans?
Yes, evil evil tobacco. Not good for us at all :o))))))
Actually Martha Washington our first first lady used snuff and has a beautiful snuff box on display at the Mt. Vernon museum.
I just saw a bit of a movie on PBS tonight with Charles Darwin taking snuff. He did indeed take it from a box in the hallway. His young daughter pinched it for him and then sprinkled it on his hand. He made a grandiose sniff (as they tend to in movies) and then had an enourmous sneeze into a white handkercheif, which his daughter pulled from his pocket for him.
I found this link to a book called Snuff Yesterday and Today which mentions quite a few famous snuff takers from The Golden Age of snuff, including John Keats.
That’s a very good find Debbie, now I’ve some reading to do when I get the time.
Snuff Yesterday and Today is an excellent book, i bought a copy off Amazon.co.uk for about £20 in the antique book section. It was an ex library book and is in excellent condition. It was first printed in 1955 I believe. Damn good book I recommend it highly. Stefan
I think all the Chasidic masters used snuff and smoked pipes also. The Chasidic tales are full of stories about snuff.
good one … i couldnt see obama or the prime minister taking snuff 
Snuff taking in the past was so commonplace that it would not have been recorded as an item of relevance or interest - much as a famous person today would invoke notice for being a cigarette smoker or wine drinker. Occasionally, however, one comes across an innocuous reference to snuff and a famous person - as in this letter from W.A Mozart. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni is listed in the 1968 Guinness Book of Records as among the most rapidly written music committed to paper. Wine, snuff, coffee and his sixteen year-old chambermaid provided the necessary sustenance. “I went to my writing table and sat there twelve hours on end, a small bottle of Tokay on my right, my inkstand in the middle and a box of Seville snuff on my left., on the first day, between the Tokay, the Seville snuff, the coffee, the bell and my young muse, I wrote the first two scenes of Don Giovanni, two others of L‘arbore di Diana, and more than half the first act of Tarar…” Small wonder little Wolfgang died young.
That mention of Seville snuff… What do you think he’s referring to brand wise? Do you think it’s similar to F&T or is Seville just used in this case as a type of snuff like scotch or rappee.