In 1961 this box was found by Métraux. It was in France and belonged to a sailor's family where it had been for generations.

The top, bottom, and four sides of the snuffbox were probably taken from a rongorongo tablet; a sailor seems to have sawed a part of it into six pieces and put them together.

Barthel has arbitrarily named the textlines of the six pieces from a to f. Only the rows labeled c and d fit together. I have in my glyph labels followed Barthel's system, but as c and d fit together I have eliminated the label d, and c therefore covers also the d-part.