Great Hand-carved Wooden Puzzle Lid Snuff Box, Signed and Dated 1776 cross hatching perhaps glad to be freed

perhaps glad to be freed from the dowel that once stuck in his back and held him up to make him dance

weighs just a little shy of 2 pounds

born 1807 and "bound in matrimony" in 1835

Approx 8 1/8" long x 5" tall x 4 1/2" widest (when fully opened/expanded)

Great Hand-carved Wooden Puzzle Lid Snuff Box, Signed and Dated 1776 cross hatching perhaps glad to be freedI found this one in Maine, purchased from a dealer who had two other 18th century (those two Dutch) snuff boxes alongside them, I am sure from the same collection. (Those two were in rough shape or I would have bought them two.) I love a wooden snuff box with puzzle lid, but often one finds them with a loss at one side that keeps them from working properly not the case here; it works just as it should. And then the happy surprise of a year written