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Tobacco Box

1670-1685 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This tobacco box is set with a cameo of Charles I. Charles I's reign (1625-49) was characterised by the struggles between court and parliament which culminated in the English Civil War (1642-51) and the execution of the king in 1649. The Restoration commenced in 1660 with the institution of his son, Charles II, as monarch. This box bears a Latin inscription translating as 'Long live the King, may the law run its course, may the flock flourish', a motto in keeping with some Restoration attitudes towards kingship.

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
Raised, engraved, pierced, applied gold
Brief description
Gold tobacco box, set with a portrait cameo of Charles I, London, ca. 1670-85, with original leather case
Physical description
Oval, gold tobacco box with plain base and walls, the cover set with a bust in cameo of Charles I of England facing left and bordered by a motto within an applied pierced and engraved border. The border has three oval reserves, one with a crowned fleur-de-lis, one with a crowned harp, and one with a rose dimidiated by a thistle, crowned and supported by a lion and a unicorn, each reserve within scrolling flowers and foliage. The border is surmounted by two putti supporting an imperial crown beneath a sunburst engraved Video.
Dimensions
  • Depth: 2.1cm
  • Width: 6.8cm
  • Height: 8.5cm
Measured 29/01/24 IW
Marks and inscriptions
  • Inscribed 'VIVAT REX, CURRAT LEX FLORET GREX'
    Translation
    'Long live the King, may the law run its course, may the flock flourish' - on the assumption that FLORET was intended to be FLOREAT.
  • Video (Engraved on the sun at the top of the engraved design of the cover)
    Translation
    I see
Gallery label
1. Tobacco box with Charles I 1670–85 This box commemorates King Charles I, who was executed in 1649. It was made after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, following the English Civil War. Probably London, England Chased and engraved gold Inscribed in Latin ‘the king lives, the law guides, the flock flourishes’ Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.545:1, 2-2008(16/11/2016)
Credit line
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Object history
Provenance: J.G. Murdoch, sale, Sotheby's, lot 974, December 16, 1904. Horatio, P.M. Berney Ficklin, Tasburgh Hall, Norwich. Sale, Christie's, London, lot 161, November 29, 1977. Sale, Christie's, London, lot 23, December 12 1983. Acquired by Arthur Gilbert from S.J. Phillips Ltd, London, 1983.
Historical context
It has been established by Schroder and Truman that the box can be dated to about 1670-85 by comparison with other tobacco boxes which are marked. The engraving on the cover can be seen in the same light as the rings and other objects which commemorate Charles I. The winged putti are, it is reasonable to suggest, acting as angels holding the crown about Charles' head. The crown is not a martyr's crown, but the image of the king with the crown supported by the putti, with the symbols of the nations, and the Latin insription connecting the king, laws, and the prosperity of the people, is that of the martyred king who died for his country and its laws. At his trial Charles in 1649 told his accusers that he was the champion of the people of England:
'do you pretend what you will, I stand more for their liberties. For if power without law may make laws, may alter the fundamental laws of the kingdom, I do not know what subject he is in England, that can be sure of his life, or anything he calls his own'. 'For the charge, I value it not a rush; it is the liberty of the people of England that I stand for'.

The case advanced in Eikon Basilike: The Portrait of of His Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings by Charles (with the assistance of John Gauden, Bishop of Exeter), of which advanced copies were available on the day of execution, is that 'civil justice' depended on a relationship between the royal prerogative and the people's 'liberties, which consists in the enjoyment of the fruits of their industry and the benefit of those laws to which they themselves have consented' (all these quotations from Tim Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815, London: Penguin Books, 2008, pp. 197-9). According to Blanning, Eikon Basilike had appeared in 35 English editions by the end of 1649, and eight on the Continent.

After the Restoration, the Convocation of Canterbury and York canonised Charles in 1660 and added his name as King and Martyr to the Kalendar of Saints at the revision of the Prayer Book in 1662.
Subjects depicted
Summary
This tobacco box is set with a cameo of Charles I. Charles I's reign (1625-49) was characterised by the struggles between court and parliament which culminated in the English Civil War (1642-51) and the execution of the king in 1649. The Restoration commenced in 1660 with the institution of his son, Charles II, as monarch. This box bears a Latin inscription translating as 'Long live the King, may the law run its course, may the flock flourish', a motto in keeping with some Restoration attitudes towards kingship.

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
  • Truman, Charles.The Gilbert collection of gold boxes, Vol. I. Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 1991, cat. no. 92, pp. 276-7. ISBN.0875871623
  • Medlam, Sarah and Lesley Ellis Miller, eds. Princely Treasures. European Masterpieces 1600 - 1800 from the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publishing, 2011. ISBN 9781851776337. Pp. 26-27.
  • Zech, Heike. Gold Boxes. Masterpieces from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection. London: V&A Publishing, 2015, p. 11, fig. 4. ISBN 987-1-85177-840-9
  • Exhibition of Stuart and Cromwellian relics and articles of interest connected with the Stuarts, Cambridge: Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1911.
  • Schroder, Timothy. Gold boxes : from the Gilbert collection : an exhibition, Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986 1
Other numbers
  • GB 84 - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 1996.436.1 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
  • GB 215 - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 1998.17 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:GILBERT.545:1,2-2008

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Record createdJune 27, 2008
Record URL
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