Early Elongated Carved Snuff Box Shoe with Great Patina carved boy At some point it was

At some point it was mounted on a this knob-like base

and looks to be quite an old one

Plus the remnants of what I believe is nickel plating on the neck

which I vividly remember opening for the first time

Early Elongated Carved Snuff Box Shoe with Great Patina carved boy At some point it wasYou know I love an old carved shoe, and even more so when it is a snuff box, and even more so when its got such terrifically elongated proportions as this one, and a fantastic surface too. I believe this is quite an early one, earlyish 19th c. I would guess, and I love how small the hollow for snuff is compared with the scale of the shoe itself. It appears to me the surface was given stained (including black drawn laces) and then given a coat or more