[Robert Burns] A Scottish polished burr sycamore snuffbox, probably Mauchline, Ayrshire, 19th century

The scene depicts the protagonist, Tam on his pony Meg, peeking in through a window of Alloway Kirk, his gaze falling upon Nannie Dee’s frenzied dancing as the devil plays the hornpipe, the moment is described in the 13th verse.

‘As Tammie glowr’d, amaz’d, and curious,

The mirth and fun grew fast and furious:

The piper loud and louder blew;

The dancers quick and quicker flew;

They reel’d, they set, they cross’d, they cleekit,

Till ilka carlin swat and reekit,

And coost her duddies to the wark,

And linket at it in her sark!’.

The decoration on this snuffbox is from an engraving by Robert Scott after Andrew Carse which was first published in The Poems of Robert Burns (Glasgow: Stewart, 1802), vol. II, p. 103.