Carved Snuff Box

The hand clenching a scroll emerged as a symbol of black freedom and equality in the decades that followed the Civil War.

While the war ensured the end of slavery, it was during those decades that America saw the enactment of Jim Crow laws, legalized segregation and increasing retaliatory discrimination, violence and denial of civil rights.

It’s widely accepted that the model for the symbol is the plaster life-cast of Abraham Lincoln’s hands made by Leonard Volk in May of 1860 (pictured last) and that at some point interpretation of the rod (broom handle in reality) became that of a scroll.

Two differences between the cast and this snuff: it was Lincoln’s right rather than left hand holding the rod, AND Lincoln wore no wedding band at the time of the casting. Curious but acceptable differences especially if we consider that a carver was familiar and primarily concerned with representing the symbol rather than the actual hand.

Pine (spruce?) with brass hinge and screws.

Found South-Eastern Massachusetts.