Great Hand-carved Wooden Puzzle Lid Snuff Box, Signed and Dated 1776 Christmas village with no notable dings

with no notable dings

made for stamping crates  (I presume) with "Native Extra Fancy Mushrooms

with black paint for the eyes and brows

then colored the lines with what looks like brown crayon to me

I presume the couple here are homesteaders

Great Hand-carved Wooden Puzzle Lid Snuff Box, Signed and Dated 1776 Christmas village with no notable dingsI found this one in Maine, purchased from a dealer who had two other 18th century (those two Dutch) snuff boxes alongside them, I am sure from the same collection. (Those two were in rough shape or I would have bought them two.) I love a wooden snuff box with puzzle lid, but often one finds them with a loss at one side that keeps them from working properly not the case here; it works just as it should. And then the happy surprise of a year written