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Not currently on display at the V&A

Snuffbox

1786-1787 (marked)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The central panel shows the hero Jason bidding farewell to his uncle King Pelias. Jason and his company of Argonauts embarked on a quest to find the Golden Fleece of the winged ram Chrysomallos in order to win back his throne from his uncle. An identical miniature survives in an earlier box by Charles Ouizille, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and in a Swiss box in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. It may therefore be that the miniatures were painted by a Swiss artist and exported to France.

Blerzy, whose mark survives on a large number of boxes, must have run one of the largest workshops in Paris in the late eighteenth century.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world’s great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Enamelled gold
Brief description
A mauve enamelled gold snuffbox cover depicting Jason. Gold and enamel, Joseph-Etienne Blerzy, Paris, 1786-87
Physical description
An oval opaque mauve enamelled gold snuffbox, the cover set with an enamel plaque depicting Jason taking leave of his uncle, King Pelias
Dimensions
  • Length: 8.3cm
  • Width: 6.1cm
  • Height: 3cm
Gallery label
7. Snuffbox with Jason taking leave of King Pelias, 1786–87 Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.1030-2008(16/11/2016)
Credit line
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Object history
Provenance: A la Vieille Russie, New York.
Subjects depicted
Summary
The central panel shows the hero Jason bidding farewell to his uncle King Pelias. Jason and his company of Argonauts embarked on a quest to find the Golden Fleece of the winged ram Chrysomallos in order to win back his throne from his uncle. An identical miniature survives in an earlier box by Charles Ouizille, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and in a Swiss box in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. It may therefore be that the miniatures were painted by a Swiss artist and exported to France.

Blerzy, whose mark survives on a large number of boxes, must have run one of the largest workshops in Paris in the late eighteenth century.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world’s great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.
Bibliographic references
  • Habsburg-Lothringen, Géza von. Gold boxes from the collection of Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert. R. & A. Gilbert, 1983. 125 p., ill. Cat no. 55, p. 105. ISBN. 0961039809.
  • Truman, Charles.The Gilbert collection of gold boxes, Vol. I. Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 1991, cat. no. 35, pp. 115-16. ISBN.0875871623
  • Schroder, Timothy. Gold boxes : from the Gilbert collection : an exhibition, Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986 66
Other numbers
  • GB 31 - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 1996.395 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
  • MM 259 - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 1996.629 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:GILBERT.1030-2008

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Record createdJune 19, 2008
Record URL
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