Modern Prophecy, Early 19th C. Engraved Brass Snuff Box with Imagined Flying Machine wooden gear Black and red ink on

Black and red ink on lined paper

and could now house matches

Gorgeous patina to the wood of frame

though very sad that this wonderful yellow airplane should go up in flames

Modern Prophecy, Early 19th C. Engraved Brass Snuff Box with Imagined Flying Machine wooden gear Black and red ink onThis! 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.