This! My very favorite Brimfield find I think--a Georgian (earlyish 19th c. British) snuff box, engraved with the "Modern Prophecy" of a flying machine. I love archaic futuristic visions of all sorts, and what a marvelous example this one is, with what looks like a steam powered mail box flapping its wings as it takes off from an elevated platform. Certainly the 19th century was full of ideas for air travel, fueled in part from the late 18th c. invention of hot air balloons, and a patent for an (unsuccessful) aerial steam carriage, named Ariel, would be issued in 1842. The vehicle pictured here seems something of a hybrid of the two--and also looks rather like a butterfly! Faqbulous. PLUS, there is a preserved fingerprint at upper left.
3 13/16" x 3 1/16" x 7/8" and in very good condition, nice patina, with hinge in excellent shape and interior clean.
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