Box.
Box and Cover
c. 1800-1825 (made)
c. 1800-1825 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This ebony box is covered with ivory panels carved with pierced geometrical and scroll designs. Inside there are four ivory trays, each in the form of an octagonal basket containing red, green, yellow and white ivory games tokens. The box is Russian and was made in Archangel, where a thriving ivory industry existed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This particular example is likely to date from the first quarter of the nineteenth century. A comparable piece is in the collections of The Hermitage, St Petersburg. Labels on the undersides of the smaller boxes are inscribed 'M.B. 1845', probably the initials of the owner, made soon after s/he acquired the boxes.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 125 parts.
|
| Title | Box. (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Ebony and ivory |
| Brief description | Box, cover, ebony and ivory, pierced, carved, coloured ivory markers. |
| Physical description | Box and cover of ebony; the top and sides are overlaid with fine openwork plaques of ivory. On the cover is a central rosette within two concentric wreaths is placed in the middle of a plaque composed of lozenges, filled with cross-shaped devices and outlined by bead ornament; the band which surrounds this plaque, is composed of a row of ovals, each of which is filled in with the same cross-shaped device. The next and last border is occupied by a repeating pattern of floral scrolls, and has a row of beads round its outer edge. The sides of the cover are decorated with festoons and ribbons, and the ornament of the sides of the box is the same as the inner border of the cover. Inside the box are four ivory trays, each in the form of an octagonal basket, containing red, green, yellow, and white ivory markers, pierced with lattice-work. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label | Box with gaming counters
About 1800–25
The coastal city of Archangel, north-east of St Petersburg, was a centre for ivory carving. The industry was fed by the availability of walrus ivory from the Baltic Sea and the Polar regions. Boxes like this one, veneered with pierced ivory panels, were a speciality of the region.
Russia (Archangel)
Ivory and ebonised wood
(09/12/2015) |
| Object history | Bought for £6. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This ebony box is covered with ivory panels carved with pierced geometrical and scroll designs. Inside there are four ivory trays, each in the form of an octagonal basket containing red, green, yellow and white ivory games tokens. The box is Russian and was made in Archangel, where a thriving ivory industry existed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This particular example is likely to date from the first quarter of the nineteenth century. A comparable piece is in the collections of The Hermitage, St Petersburg. Labels on the undersides of the smaller boxes are inscribed 'M.B. 1845', probably the initials of the owner, made soon after s/he acquired the boxes. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 686:129-1894 |
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| Record created | January 19, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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