Alright, I’m a bit of an artsy craftsy person, and I was wondering if anyone has ever had any luck crafting a papier mache snuff box of the sort that were apparently popular in the good 'ol days of snuffing. If so, how’d you go about it?

I don’t think anyone has re-created these boxes, at least no one here. I believe the papier mache used for snuff boxes was paper pulp and a bonding agent which was then given a coat of lacquer, possibly shallac. A variant was the ‘potato skin’ boxes that used potato or other vegetable matter as an addition to the basic pulp; these were said to be very strong and the better type.

I believe that papier mache crafts are still made_ _in the far East but the snuff boxes exist only as antiques. It may be very difficult to get hard and fast information on the techniques used for snuff boxes and it would be trial and error to re-create I imagine; none of the available (but out of print) books on snuff carry exact manufacturing details by the way. I guess if you got the recipe and made a former from an old box it would not be too difficult to do though, if you had sufficient arty skills. 

PhilipS - our resident mine of information may have a better idea although I’m not sure if he still posts.

yep philipS made a good one out of orange peel a while back …

My guess is that shellac is right for the lacquer coat It is used for french polishing, so you should still be able to get hold of it.

I’d love to see some attempts at this! Could prove very informative!

Would love to see someone attempt this. Shellac is very abundant and the raw materials should be fairly easy to acquire.

For the shellac try this. It is food grade so no harsh solvents and sets just as hard as the French polish type.

It looks like there are still a good number of quality paper mache artists (google is a wonderful thing) who also post instructional videos and stuff. Looks like you could just go from there easily once you learned how to do it.

Does anyone have a source for good hinges?

Perhaps some of you who have a decent collection of snuff boxes would know the answer to this question; traditionally, what style of box would these (papier mache) be? Flip top? Or a nested piece?

I have a rectangular flip top but I have seen round nest lidded ones on e-bay. 

I have a rectangular flip top as well.

@Slide any cabinet makers suppliers should have the hinges. Barbed slot box hinges is the type you will need. http://www.atcoproducts.com/barhin17.html

Thanks!

My post about the shellac lost the link. oh well it was confectioners glaze. Just google it.

Here’s all I could find when looking them up, they’re just paper mache boxes that are painted. The one on the right is just a plain paper mache box on its own. It looks like it attraction is the painting on it without it, it’s just a plain box

You could try the dollar bill boxes. I imagine the thinner ones would be best for carrying round/showing off, or or you can use styled paper with a design already on it. It’s defintely something to talk about at the very least.

I don’t think we’ll be able to imitate the original ones unless we cheat and print the picture out 

I have one D shape black with sun burst pattern on bottom and fluted bars on sides, tight fitting smooth lid with over look of mountain /lake scene . Looks like it was mass produced by pressing into a form. Then some starving artist painted a miniature scenic landscape on the lid.


The hinge seems to be molded into the lid then the box was notched and kerf fitted then glued.Both sections could be molded in if pin can be removed but that will take some expert layout and execution.

The material is more like hard board then modern paper mache. I suggest if you make a form to coat it with wax,cure then a freeze release.Or you could make the entire form out of wax then melt it off.Have fun!