These "cephalick" snuff bottles must have been made for a long time, not unlike Turlington balsams. I've seen newer fairly boring examples from the post-era, and early 1800's crude examples like this one. The earlier ones have heavier embossing and the earliest seem to be teal green.

A comparable crude and green example sold in Heckler's auction #174 for $556 (lot 95). That's the only sales record I could find for an example with similar greenish color and crudity. Some examples have shear lips like this one, but most have a thin flare lip. Although the shear lip on this one appears natural to me, it's possible that it once had a thin flare lip and someone could have ground it down. I don't see the tell-tale buffing finish though. Still, I'm selling this much cheaper than the Heckler example just in case.

Embossing	TRUE / CEPHALICK / SNUFF / BY THE / KING'S / PATENT
Color	medium teal green
Height	3 1/2"
Top	plain shear (but see notes)
Base	early and crude sand chip pontil
Structural Condition	excellent - no damage (no chips, bruises, cracks, etc). The inside rim of the lip has a bit of very slight roughness that you need to feel for, which is typical of cork prying - only mentioned for accuracy. But see caveat notes above.
Surface Condition	Very little wear except normal base wear, and super clean. Bold but somewhat muddy embossing (crude)

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Reference No: GX153	Reserve It
Price: $23028	Payment Info