Carved Wooden Shoe Shaped Snuff Box nails The front of the tile

The front of the tile is executed in partial relief

one of which

which I guess represents the other joker

and with a nice warm patina (I have not touched it)

dates I believe to the late 1800s

Carved Wooden Shoe Shaped Snuff Box nails The front of the tileThere are some very fancy little antique shoe shaped snuff boxes out there with all sorts of inlays and flourishes, but I love the relative humility of this one (and its great silhouette), with just some sweet decorative detail carved into the pointy toe and a short heel at the other end. There is some old hand written cursive text on the bottom of the box, I believe in pencil, but it is very faint and I am unable to read it; I do believe this little