Pat Rogers (footnote 1) recognizes Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) as “arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history." His, DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 1755 is considered one of the great triumphs of lexicography. James Boswell’s biography of Dr. Johnson is widely held to be the most famous biography in all literature (footnote 2) . In 1764, Johnson and his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds (painter) founded, The Club, which met every week at Turk's Head Inn, Soho, London to eat, drink, snuff, and smoke while discussing literature, politics and intellectual themes of the day. Other noted friends of Johnson’s were, Oliver Goldsmith, (writer), David Garrick (actor), Giuseppe Baretti (lexicographer, writer), Edmund Burke (statesman), and James Boswell (biographer, writer).

The silver mounted box is carved in the form if a leather gloved hand issuing the “fare la fica” gesture. La fica (Italian meaning “the fig”) or la higa in Spanish, is an ancient phallic hand gesture whereas the thumb is placed between the fore and middle fingers and shown to ward off the evil eye. In ancient Rome amulets carved as such were hung around the neck. It later became a more course gesture offered as contempt of another. Relating to tobacco culture of the 18thC, John Knox (footnote 3) writes, “any stranger who cannot take a pinch [of snuff], or give one, is looked upon with an evil eye.”

The overall form of the box and mounts relate to the carved horn, wood and ivory snuff mulls and boxes made in Scotland and England during the mid-late 18thC. The carving of the ivory is masterful and surely belongs to the quality one would see in a larger center like London. The carving takes on a sensitivity that is hard to achieve—we do not see a lifeless pillowed glove or a spiritless hand with simple glove-like details, we see a gloved hand—we hear the squeaky crunch of the leather as the fist clenches and the fingers gain position!

After a moment of marvel of having the box in hand, appreciating its rich beauty, age and history, we ponder the etched inscription, “Dr. Samuel Johnson, The Lexicographer, 1770, From a Friend” and invariably ask, “who is the friend?” From the 17thC to late 19thC snuffboxes were routinely given as gifts and presented to individuals for friendship, respect or service (think of how the gold watch became associated with retirement, thus was the snuffbox in these times). Though research found no a definitive answer, one name kept rising to the top—Giueseppe Baretti.

Giuseppe Marc Antonio Baretti (1719-1789) was an Italian writer, literary critic and lexicographer who came to London in 1751 and befriended Dr. Johnson. Surely his, A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH AND ITALIAN LANGUAGES, 1760 was influenced by Johnson’s 1755 work, DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. In the fall of 1769, Baretti was assaulted and accosted by a woman in the streets of Haymarket. Instinctively he pushed back at her. She screamed and three man attacked Baretti. In self defense he lashed out at them with a pocket knife and stabbed one in the chest. Baretti was arrested and tried for murder. Johnson came to his defense as a character witness and Baretti was acquitted (footnote 4).

Arguably the “friend" is Giuseppe Baretti, an Italian living in London, who not only would have been culturally familiar with the “fare la fica” gesture (he wrote about it in his Spanish-English-Spanish dictionary -footnote 5), but also a fellow lexicographer who knew Johnson’s tastes and habits, and more so would have wanted to thank him for his legal support and friendship.

1) Rogers, Pat (2006), "Johnson, Samuel (1709–1784)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press.
2) Bate, Walter Jackson (1977), SAMUEL JOHNSON, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
3) Knox, John, A TOUR THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND, AND THE HEBRIDES ISLES IN 1786, p. 255.
4) Meyers, Jeffrey (2008), SAMUEL JOHNSON: THE STRUGGLE, pps 323-324
5) Baretti, Giuseppe, A DICTIONARY, SPANISH AND ENGLISH, AND ENGLISH AND SPANISH, “Higa: A Manner of scoffing at peo- ple, which consists of showing the thumb bewteen the first and second finger.”

Condition: Very good—Excellent . Scattered losses of silver along the perimeter.

Price: on request