Posted 6 years ago
hotairfan
(385 items)
This is a tobacco honor box from the late 1700's or early 1800's. they were used in taverns of the day as a gesture of thanks to the customers for patronizing their establishment. I recall in the 1960's, the local bar rooms used to show their customer appreciation by having bowls of pretzels on the bar. this practice ended because the state liquor control commission said it made the customers drink excessively because of the salty pretzels. Do you believe such nonsense?
Anyway, as to the how they used these honor boxes, you can see that on one side there is a coin slot ( for an English penny) and push button device. This side is locked and can only be opened by a key (as shown in the photo) held by the tavern owner. The other side of the box contained tobacco. To use the honor box, you place a penny in the slot and push the button. By doing this, you unlatch a hook on the other side and the lid pops open, exposing the tobacco. This allowing you to fill tour pipe with a charge of tobacco. You are on your honor to help yourself to only one pipe full of tobacco per penny. After you get your pipe full of tobacco, you then are to close the lid until it snaps and the next customer may buy a charge of tobacco by entering a penny in the coin slot.
The push button will not let you open the tobacco door if a penny is not inserted first.
the box is all brass and has button feet under the base.
Great find. A new one on me.
I'm not sure that bulbous-head screws go back to the early 1800s. As far as I'm aware, they were always flat-headed until sometime after the 1830s came about. Wouldn't the normal English pennies used for pretty much the last 200 years work just as well?
Hi Spiritbear, the feet are more turnip shaped. I know for a fact that William and Mary period furniture used turnip shapes feet on much of their furniture. Maybe they used it on their table items also. I have seen other tobacco honor boxes with similar shaped feet.
It is an early English penny that came with the box that I use to operate the mechanism. I havn't tried any other coin. I think that a half dollar is too big to fit the slot, and a quarter would not trigger the mechanism.
Thanks for your input... hotairfan