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Snuffbox
Breton, Thomas-Pierre - Enlarge image
Snuffbox
- Place of origin:
Paris, France (marked)
- Date:
1743-1744 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Breton, Thomas-Pierre (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Moulded gold, Japanese <i>takamakie</i>, <i>hiramakie</i>and <i>raden</i> lacquer; gold and mother-of-pearl
- Credit Line:
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Museum number:
LOAN:GILBERT.338-2008
- Gallery location:
On loan
Japanese lacquer was very highly valued in Europe in the eighteenth century. This box is made up of panels which were probably cut out of boxes imported into France and sold by marchand-merciers. Three types of lacquer are used in this box: raden, using mother-of-pearl, hiramakie, in which gold or silver dust is sprinkled onto a lacquer surface and covered with a clear lacquer and takamakie, lacquer decoration raised from the surface and then sprinkled with metal dust. Charles Truman has pointed out that the act of using panels from the imported boxes might seem like vandalism in our century; however, at the time it was both commonplace and demonstrated the esteem in which the art of the East were held.
The panels are set in a gold box made by Thomas-Pierre Breton (died 1767), the son of a Paris master goldsmith.
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.
On long-term loan to Los Angeles County Museum from 2010.
