AFA Autumn 2021

Autumn 88 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Desperate for money, and too proud to ask for charity, she turned to John’s original watercolors for The Birds of America as a source of cash. “I must sell [them] for what I can get,” she wrote Harris, “and the copper plates by weight as old copper! Thus, as my poor ruined Brother writes, ‘the work of years of toil, and such as will never again be seen are handed about like an old newspaper, and the widow of such a man [is] not sure of a living’.”  24 With Burgess’s help, the watercolors were eventually sold to the New York Historical Society for $4000 in 1863. 25 Audubon’s treasured snuff box was among the few things of value that remained with Lucy. It may have come directly to her at the time of her husband’s death or been inherited and owned by John Woodhouse Audubon in the 1850s. In any case, by 1862 it was in Lucy’s possession. Since she could not afford to pay her lawyer cash for his services, she sometimes reimbursed him for his time and professional services with items of value from her household. 26 As close friends of Lucy’s, George Burgess and his wife, Valeria, would have treasured Audubon’s snuff box, not just for its monetary value, but as a keepsake of their long association with the artist and his widow. Thomas Burgess, the lawyer’s son, subsequently inherited the box from his father. It then passed to his widow. She loaned it to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for inclusion in its landmark 1938 national exhibition on Audubon and his work. 27 Mrs. Burgess retained ownership of the snuff box into the 1950s. 28 It was acquired by the well-known silver collector James H. Halpin sometime after that and was purchased by the current owner at the Halpin sale at Christies in New York, on January 22, 1993. 29 The only other snuff box associated with John James Audubon is one that he presented to his friend, the engraver Robert Havell, Jr., in 1835 (Fig. 7). The silver box, now in the Audubon Museum in Henderson, Kentucky, is rectangular and hinged with a brown-and-cream-colored agate stone mounted on the lid in a window setting. The back is curved and engraved: “Robert Havell Esq./from/John J. Audubon/1835” (Figs. 8, 8a). 30 Five British silver hallmarks inside the box and three hallmarks on the inside of the lid indicate that the makers were Thomas Phipps & Edward Robinson, well-known London silversmiths, and that the box was made in 1806–1807, long before Audubon acquired it. Like Audubon’s own snuff box, the Phipps & Robinson Havell box has a gold-plated interior. 31 The date of the inscription suggests that Audubon gave this to Havell as he approached completion of the third volume of The Birds of America. The professional relationship that existed between Audubon and Havell is evident in the great book they produced together, but it was their shared love of snuff, and Audubon’s gift of this box, that gives us an insight into the close personal friendship that must have existed between them. While Audubon’s artistic ability and life-long obsession with birds sets him apart from most of his contemporaries, his fondness for snuff was not unusual in the nineteenth century. His various snuff boxes, both given and received, provide tangible evidence of his addiction to nicotine, and give us a glimpse into one small part of his rich, productive, and controversial life.  Exhibition History Audubon’s Silver Snuff Box — Provenance: John James Audubon—A National Exhibition, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, April–June, 1938 (item # 90, exhibition catalog, p. 29). Audubon in the West: The Last Expedition, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming, May 2000– June 2001. This exhibition travelled to: The Buffalo Bill Historical Center; The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; The Houston Museum of Natural History; and the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles. Audubon’s Aviary: The Complete Flock, The New York Historical Society, New York City, March– May 2014. John James Audubon: Obsession Untamed, Rosecliff, The Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport, Rhode Island, March 30– September 30, 2019. J. J. Audubon, Sharon Historical Society, Sharon, Connecticut, October 1–December 31, 2019. John James Audubon—gift from Dr. Samuel Wilson, Charleston S.C., November, 1831; John Woodhouse Audubon (?)—gift or bequest of John James Audubon; Lucy Audubon—bequest of John James Audubon in 1851, or of John Woodhouse Audubon in 1862; George Burgess (Audubon’s attorney)—gift of Lucy Audubon; then by descent to Thomas Burgess (son) and Mrs. Thomas Burgess; James H. Halpin—purchased fromMrs. Thomas Burgess (date unknown, circa 1950); Present owner—purchased at Christies American Silver Sale, January 22, 1993, Lot # 50.