Tortoiseshell piqué snuffboxes had been made in Naples since at least 1683 when the Duke of Gravina paid 3 ducats to Matteo de Turris for a tabacchera di tartaruca chiodettata. Snuffboxes were one of the items, which ranged from trays and ink stands to caskets and cabinets, made by successive generations of Neapolitan tortoiseshell workers, tartarugari. In an account published in 1735 the Neapolitan lawyer Giuseppe Senator noted ‘against the walls of the old palace were the workshops of the principal artists working in tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl, Nicola de Turris and Giuseppe Sarao …’

The combination of carved or engraved mother-of-pearl inlay with gold piqué point et posé, known as le brodé, is a characteristic of Neapolitan piqué work, the most fêted masters of which were Giuseppe and Gennaro Sarao, assumed to be father and son. Other identified makers include the previously mentioned de Turris, Antonio de Laurenzii (Laurenzini or Laurenzif), Nicolaus Storace, and Giovanni and Tomaso Tagliaferro. The subjects chosen for the decoration of their work were based variously on classical history (as seen here), pastoral life, chinoiserie and turquerie.

Tortoiseshell piqué snuffboxes seem to have appealed to the English. When planning to visit Naples in June 1740 Horace Walpole (1717 1797) wrote to Sir Horace Mann (1706–1786) about purchasing what may be presumed to be tortoiseshell boxes while in the city: ‘As to your box ’twill certainly be a pretty one, if you think it enough for a present. I shall buy three or four for myself and you shall choose …’ A few years later, in April 1755, Robert Adam (1728–1792) acquired three ‘very handsome snuff-boxes of yellow and black tortoise-shell studded with gold and with gold hinges’ before he left Naples. In 1819 a ‘piquay’ snuffbox was among the effects of Queen Charlotte (1744–1818) that were auctioned by Christie’s after her death.

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