A mid-18th century silver-mounted agate tontine snuff box

A mid-18th century silver-mounted agate tontine snuff box,

maker's mark W.L only, London circa 1755,

rectangular cushion form, chased foliate and scroll decoration, the underside and interior inscribed with the names and dates of death, length 7.7cm., approx. weight 4oz.

Tontine is a loan given for life annuities with benefit of survivorship, so called from the inventor Laurence Tonti, a Neapolitan. There is an annuity, after a certain rate of interest, granted to a number of people, divided into classes, according to their respective ages, so that annually the whole fund of each class is divided among the survivors of that class, till at last it falls to one.

Provenance: The Lion Collection, no. 160.

The Albert Collection no.511.

Asprey and Co. Ltd., London 1995. (Alastair Dickenson).

Illustrated and written up in Culme, J. British Silver Boxes 1640-1840, The Lion Collection, Antique Collector's Club, 2015, page 148-149.

Illustrated in Butler, R., The Albert Collection, Broadway Publishing, London 2004, page 42/3.

Literature: Gale Glynn, 'Some tontines commemorated on English plate, The Silver Society Journal, No.8, Autumn 1996 pages 452-453. She publishes the fruit of her research into this box and explains the family and business connections between individuals named in the inscriptions.