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Snuffbox

ca.1800 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The blue reserve shows the name of Pope Pius IX (1792-1878) picked out in diamonds. It was added about 1850-70 so that the box could be used as a gift from the Pope.

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

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Gold, enamel, diamonds
Brief description
Snuffbox, gold and enamel set with diamonds, Geneva, ca.1800
Physical description
Oval gold snuffbox, enamelled in duck-egg blue with borders of black arabesques and gold paillons within opaque white lines. The walls are divided by four opaque white pilasters, the cover later painted with a blue reserve and set with diamonds with the words PIUS IX within a diamond border. The leather case is applied with the pontifical arms of Pius IX.
Dimensions
  • Length: 8.7cm
  • Width: 6.5cm
  • Height: 2.5cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • FJ (Struck on the inside of the base and of the lid. Mark of goldsmith, previously thought to be working in Geneva, but currently considered to have worked in Germany, probably Berlin.)
  • [illegible monogram] (On the inside of lid and base)
  • A mark possibly imitating a Paris date letter (On the inside of base and lid)
  • A bird's head (Struck on the inside of the base)
  • 2307 (Inscribed on the right bezel)
  • PIUS IX (Set in diamonds on an added plaque on the cover)
Gallery label
7. Snuffbox, about 1800, with name of Pope Pius IX, 1850–70 Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.520-2008(16/11/2016)
Credit line
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Object history
Provenance
Acquired by Arthur Gilbert from S.J. Phillips Ltd, London, 1995
Subjects depicted
Summary
The blue reserve shows the name of Pope Pius IX (1792-1878) picked out in diamonds. It was added about 1850-70 so that the box could be used as a gift from the Pope.

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 reference
Truman, Charles.The Gilbert collection of gold boxes, volume II, London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1999, cat. no. 44, p. 73. ISBN.0856675210
Other numbers
  • GB 203
  • 1998.5 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
  • GB 215 - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 1998.17 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:GILBERT.520-2008

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Record createdJune 19, 2008
Record URL
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