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Not currently on display at the V&A

Automaton Box

ca.1820 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

From the decorated outside, showing scrolling foliage and a musical trophy, this box gives no suggestion of the erotic automaton hidden within. The box had no purpose other than to contain this scene and the Swiss mechanisms that worked it.

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
Chased and enamelled gold; clockwork musical movement
Brief description
Rectangular gold box, the cover chased with a musical trophy bordered by scrolling foliage and a band of opaque blue enamel with taille d'épargne foliage, the walls and base similarly decorated. The interior is set with an automated scene of a standing couple taking al fresco pleasure in each other, before an altar, with an amorino playing a lyre, and a tree in coloured golds, before an enamelled landscape.
Physical description
Rectangular gold box, the cover chased with a musical trophy bordered by scrolling foliage and a band of opaque blue enamel with foliage, the walls and base similarly decorated. The interior is set with an automated erotic scene before an enamelled landscape.
Dimensions
  • Width: 5.5cm
  • Depth: 4.0cm
  • Height: 2.0cm
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, 1994
Subjects depicted
Summary
From the decorated outside, showing scrolling foliage and a musical trophy, this box gives no suggestion of the erotic automaton hidden within. The box had no purpose other than to contain this scene and the Swiss mechanisms that worked it.

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. 48, p. 78. ISBN.0856675210
Other numbers
  • GB 229 - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 1999.61 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
  • MM 19 - Arthur Gilbert Number
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:GILBERT.1043-2008

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Record createdJune 19, 2008
Record URL
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