18 Th Fine Silver Plated "guillotine" Snaffle.

The modest quality of candles, essential basis of late 18th century lighting, generated the invention of accessories intended to facilitate their use; Thus were born all kinds of snuffers due to the best craftsmen with, for specifications: to stifle the flame by avoiding the bad smell of the burnt wick, and to cut it to present a candle again ready; This snuffer fulfills this task to perfection and, moreover, has an appearance capable of satisfying the bourgeois circles of the time, always eager for the latest finds. Born in the Birmingham workshops, it benefits from the "close plating" method, a process leading to perfect silvering by tinning followed by the hot coating of a sheet of silver "reburnished" with agate or "la dent de chien” (!) With three small feet to make it easier to grip, it is decorated with shells, pearls and stripes on its chest; its operation, in a small dry snap, is flawless. ME Chevreul, in 1826, put stearin in the candles, making their use easier...it was, for the snuffers, the beginning of their...extinction.