Five years ago, rescue archaeologists uncovered a small ceramic jar where Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre now stands. This jar serves as a portal to nineteenth century Christchurch.
Nineteenth century Christchurch
Let us imagine. It is the mid to late 1800s, and you are standing in the heart of Christchurch city. To your right, traders are noisily bustling in Market Square. To your left stands Christchurch’s tallest building, Christchurch Cathedral, and in front of you, there is a veranda-fronted wooden shop.
The shop in 1884. Image: Burton Brothers, 1884.
We can’t be sure whose shop you are standing in front of, but it might be James and John Mummery’s bakery, their hotel “The Fire Brigade Arms”, a corn store, a shop for draperies and fancy goods, a furrier, or a painter and decorator (Trendafilov et al. 2018a: 159-160).
Rubbish
You step forward, open the front door, and walk through the shop to reach the back yard. Here, you can be more certain about what you will discover: a common feature in every backyard - a rubbish pit.
An 1862 map, with the location where the bottle was found highlighted in red. This is the location of the shop highlighted in the 1884 photograph above. Image: Fooks 1862.
Snuff – status in a bottle
Inside the pit, amid the broken glass, ceramics, brick, and metal (Trendafilov et al. 2018a), you spot a small ceramic snuff jar. It catches your eye because you don’t see bottles like this every day – it’s fancy, imported, and has script printed onto it.
Taddy and Co. snuff/tobacco jar. Image: J. Garland.
You pick up the bottle and imagine its months-long voyage by sea, from central London into the hands of its eventual owner. “And who was the owner?”, you wonder.
While clay pipes are common, not everyone turns to snuff for their nicotine fix (Trendafilov et al. 2018b: 81-86). Snuff is a fashionable choice for both women and men and oozes respectability (Goodman 1993: 82). Even Queen Charlotte, “Snuffy Charlotte”, was a regular user in the early nineteenth century (Harrison 1986: 1649).
Still from Netflix’s “Bridgerton”, which fictionalised Queen Charlotte’s life but accurately portrayed her real-life snuff addiction. Image: Jeffrey, 2022.
What has changed?
As you turn to leave, you drop the bottle back into the pit and catch a waft of the tobacco that was ground to make the snuff. The bottle’s owner chose plain snuff – deciding against any of the fancy, fashionable flavours available (Harrison 1986: 1649).
You picture the bottle’s owner taking a pinch of snuff and letting out a “healthy” sneeze – sneezing was considered a tonic (Harrison 1986: 1649) – and then smiling as the snuff delivered its narcotic effect. Little do they know the story that their discarded jar will tell in the future.
This snuff jar is just one of approximately one million items held by the Christchurch Archaeology Project. To learn more about the project to build a free, online home for the objects, where anyone can easily search for information about their family, home or community, visit https://www.christchurcharchaeology.org/the-database
While Canterbury Museum is closed for renovation, you can explore items from their collection relating to snuff at https://collection.canterburymuseum.com/objects?query=snuff And they have a pop-up too: https://www.canterburymuseum.com/visit
Jane Leighs
References
Burton Brothers, 1884. Christchurch. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Ref C.011604.
Fooks, C., 1862. Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand, 1862 [cartographic material]. Christchurch City Libraries.
Goodman, J., 1993. Tobacco in history: the cultures of dependence. London: Routledge.
Harrison, D. F. N., 1986. Dangers of Snuff, Both “Wet” and “Dry”. British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition), 293: 1649-1651.
Jeffrey, J., 2022. Wait, what is Queen Charlotte sniffing in ‘Bridgerton’? [online] Available at: https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/bridgerton-queen-charlotte-sniffing-snuff-rcna22208 [Accessed 26 October 2023].
Trendafilov, A., Garland, J., Whybrew, C., Mearns, L., Lillo Bernabeu, M., Hennessey, M. and Webb, K., 2018a. Christchurch Convention Centre Precinct - Volume 2: Final report on archaeological monitoring under HNZPT authority 2017/280eq, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Trendafilov, A., Garland, J., Whybrew, C., Mearns, L., Lillo Bernabeu, M., Hennessey, M. and Webb, K., 2018b. Christchurch Convention Centre Precinct - Volume 3: Final report on archaeological monitoring under HNZPT authority 2017/280eq, Christchurch, New Zealand.