Box thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Box

ca. 1855 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This box was purchased for £12 from the Paris 1855 Exhibition. François-Désiré Froment-Meurice died on 17 February 1855. His widow and son, Emile Froment-Meurice (1837-1913), oversaw the preparation of his exhibits for the Paris Exhibition which opened on 15 May 1855. The firm was awarded a Medal of Honour.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Variegated agate, parcel-gilt silver, enamel and rubies
Brief description
Agate box with enamel mounts and set with cabochon rubies, F.-D. Froment-Meurice, Paris, ca. 1855.
Physical description
Box in variegated agate, mounted in silver, partly gilt and partly oxidized, enamelled and set with cabochon rubies. The hinged cover is surmounted by three medieval figures: one holds a hawk, another a crown and the third blows a horn.
Dimensions
  • Height: 48mm
  • Length: 55mm
  • Depth: 43mm
Marks and inscriptions
  • boar's head (Paris restricted warranty mark for silver from 1838 on rim of body)
  • P with symbol, letter to right indistinct, within horizontal lozenge mark (On rim of body. Apparently the mark of Pierre-Auguste Moireau (C. Arminjon et al., 1991, no. 03035), 1837-56 )
Gallery label
BOX Manufacturer: F.-D. Froment-Meurice (1802-1855) Paris: about 1855 Onyx, parcel-gilt, silver, enamel, rubies This box was purchased for £12 from the Paris 1855 Exhibition. François-Désiré Froment-Meurice died on 17 February 1855. His widow and son, Emile Froment-Meurice (1837-1913), oversaw the preparation of his exhibits for the Paris Exhibition which opened on 15 May 1855. The firm was awarded a Medal of Honour.(1987-2006)
Object history
Purchased for £12 from the Paris 1855 Exhibition.
Historical context
François-Désiré Froment-Meurice died on 17 February 1855. His widow and son, Emile Froment-Meurice (1837-1913), oversaw the preparation of his exhibits for the Paris Exhibition which opened on 15 May 1855. The firm was awarded a Medal of Honour.
Summary
This box was purchased for £12 from the Paris 1855 Exhibition. François-Désiré Froment-Meurice died on 17 February 1855. His widow and son, Emile Froment-Meurice (1837-1913), oversaw the preparation of his exhibits for the Paris Exhibition which opened on 15 May 1855. The firm was awarded a Medal of Honour.
Bibliographic references
  • Napoléon III et la reine Victoria, Une visite à l'Exposition universelle de 1855, exhibition at the Musée national du château de Compiègne, 4 October 2008 - 19 January 2009, no.131 (with bibliography).
  • Art and Design for All: The Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. Julius Bryant, V&A Publishing, 2011, publication to accompany an exhibition at the Kunst- und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn (18 November 2011-15 April 2012), no. 112 'Bought by the Museum of Ornamental Art for £12 from Paris Exposition Universelle of 1855, this box is both oriental and medieval in inspiration. On the cover stand three medieval pages: one holds a crown, the second a hawk, and the third is blowing a horn. On a minute scale they parallel the figures designed and modelled by Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume for the corners of the caskets in Froment-Meurice's masterpiece at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the toilet service of the Duchess of Parma' (Richard Edgcumbe)
  • For the context: Anne Dion-Tenenbaum, 'Geoffroy-Dechaume et l'orfevrerie', in De plâtre et d'or: Geoffroy-Dechaume sculpteur romantique de Viollet-le-Duc, exhibition catalogue, Musée d'art et d'histoire Louis Senlecq (L'Isle Adam, 1998), pp. 73-92).
  • Catherine Arminjon, James Beaupuis, Michèle Bilimoff. Dictionnaire des poinçons de fabricants...de Paris et de la Seine, 1798-1838. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1991.
Collection
Accession number
2662-1856

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Record createdMay 26, 2006
Record URL
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