the animal's head poking out from the bottom of its shell, the sides hinged from the base, one side pierced to retain an aromatic sponge and engraved to interior '.M.K.', the other solid side with concentric ribs concealing an interior originally with four dividers (lacking) for spices, two engraved 'P[o]urri' and 'Negel', with suspension ring, 3cm long

Provenance: dug up in the 1960s by the vendor's father on his allotment just outside Brighton, close to the Brighton to London road.

Pomanders were often suspended from the wearer's neck or girdle, used to hold scents and spices, also sometimes functioning as an amulet, warding against plague and other ‘miasma’ borne diseases. Although occasionally modelled as a skull or die, the normal pomander form is round, with compartments like orange segments. Snail pomanders are rarer, the form symbolic: ‘The ability of the snail to withdraw into its protective shell at times of danger or hardship resulted in its becoming the symbol of spring and resurrection. We know of the apotropaic use of snail amulets when plague was rife.’ (Launert, Edmund ‘Perfume and Pomanders: Scent and Scent Bottles through the Ages’, Potterton Books Ltd., 1987, p.22). See three similar silver snail pomanders held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, catalogued as 'scent cases' (Accession Nos.M.805-1926, M.806-1926 and M.128-1929) and one sold Sotheby's, London, 7 June 2007, lot 107.