Modern Prophecy, Early 19th C. Engraved Brass Snuff Box with Imagined Flying Machine ancient roman unguentarium and seeming as if about

and seeming as if about to take a bite out of the sun

has  given way to modern spokeshaves with threaded tangs allowing for the adjusting of the blade

but what a sweet pair

Interior is in original unpainted state

Modern Prophecy, Early 19th C. Engraved Brass Snuff Box with Imagined Flying Machine ancient roman unguentarium and seeming as if aboutThis! 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.