This snuffbox, likely made in Geneva around 1780, features ten miniature rustic genre scenes painted in watercolour and body colour on vellum. Though attributed to a Swiss maker, the box bears marks that attempt to liken it to the finest craftsmanship of the French ancien régime. The miniatures could be of a Swiss or French hand.
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.
Physical description
Octagonal varicoloured gold snuffbox with pilasters at the corners, set with ten miniatures in watercolour and body colour on vellum, under glass, depicting peasants in various idyllic pursuits, mounted in gold chased with scrolls, foliage and swags, and with foliate thumbpiece of diamonds in silver settings.
Place of Origin
Geneva (probably, made)
Date
ca. 1780 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown
Materials and Techniques
Gold, silver, diamonds, glazed miniatures
Marks and inscriptions
A mark imitating that of a Paris goldsmith
In the lid, on the base and on the left bezel
A mark imitating the charge mark for silver used in Paris in various forms, 1672-1792
In the lid, on the base and on the left bezel
A mark presumably intended to imitate a Paris warden's mark
In the lid, on the base and on the left bezel
Dimensions
Length: 7.8 cm, Width: 8.3 cm, Height: 4.2 cm
Object history note
Provenance: Christie's, Geneva, 19 November, 1997, lot 257. S.J. Phillips, London.
Descriptive line
Snuffbox, gold, set with diamonds and ten miniatures in watercolour and body colour on vellum, under glass, Geneva, ca.1780
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Truman, Charles.The Gilbert collection of gold boxes, volume II, London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1999, cat. no. 43, p. 72. ISBN.0856675210
Labels and date
1. Snuffbox with rustic scenes, about 1780
Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.362-2008 [16/11/2016]
Snuffbox with rustic scenes
About 1780
Probably Geneva, Switzerland
Gold, silver, diamonds and glazed miniatures
in watercolour on vellum
Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.362-2008 [2009]
Materials
Gold; Silver; Diamond; Glass
Techniques
Chasing; Setting; Glazing (glass); Painting (image-making)
Subjects depicted
Cockrel; Dog; Kitchen; Foliage; Swags; Pilasters; Peasants; Scrolls
Categories
Containers; Metalwork; Personal accessories
Collection
Metalwork Collection
