Personal Accessory Case thumbnail 1
Personal Accessory Case thumbnail 2
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On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Personal Accessory Case

1766 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
A 'nécessaire' was a luxury object designed to hold a whole range of 'necessary' scent bottles and cosmetic and writing implements for use by a woman of fashion. The contents include five bottles with stoppers, a pencil and an ivory writing tablet, scissors, a mirror, a comb, a brush, toothpicks, a tongue scraper, a bodkin combined with a spoon for ear wax, and a file combined with a pair of tweezers.

People
Hidden away inside the box, visible only if the fittings are taken out, are the signature and date 'J. Pratbernon / 1766'. He was probably John Pratbernon, described as a gold and silver worker living in Oxford Street in 1774 (Westminster Poll Book). .

Design & Designing
To judge this casket by the most fashionable standards, it comes at the end of the Rococo period, for by 1766 Neo-classical silver and luxury objects were coming into favour. The figure scenes in contemporary dress are in the French manner. Similar figures were modelled as English porcelain figures, and also painted in enamel on copper boxes.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 21 parts.

  • Necessaire
  • Bottle With Stopper
  • Bottle With Stopper
  • Bottle With Stopper
  • Bottle With Stopper
  • Bottle With Stopper
  • Knife (Cutting Tool)
  • Case
  • Writing Tablet
  • Scissors
  • Implement
  • Implement
  • Implement
  • Implement
  • Combination Spoon and Needle
  • Pencil
  • Comb
  • Brush
  • Combination File and Tweezers
  • Mirror
  • Spoon
Materials and techniques
Agate, mounted in gold, with bottles mounted in gold, and implements in silver, ivory, mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell
Brief description
Case for personal equipment, known as a 'nécessaire'
Dimensions
  • Closed height: 11.1cm
  • Width: 9.2cm
  • Depth: 7cm
Dimensions checked: Registered Description; 01/01/1998 by LM Need to check open dimensions
Gallery label
(27/03/2003)
British Galleries:
This type of elaborate personal accessory kit was inspired by the work of French goldsmiths of the late Rococo period. The use of hardstones was more typical of German work and the panels here may have been made by a German craftsman. The resultant box, however, is a distinctive London type.
Credit line
Bequeathed by John Jones
Object history
Signed on the inside of the base by J. Pratbernon, probably the box maker
Summary
Object Type
A 'nécessaire' was a luxury object designed to hold a whole range of 'necessary' scent bottles and cosmetic and writing implements for use by a woman of fashion. The contents include five bottles with stoppers, a pencil and an ivory writing tablet, scissors, a mirror, a comb, a brush, toothpicks, a tongue scraper, a bodkin combined with a spoon for ear wax, and a file combined with a pair of tweezers.

People
Hidden away inside the box, visible only if the fittings are taken out, are the signature and date 'J. Pratbernon / 1766'. He was probably John Pratbernon, described as a gold and silver worker living in Oxford Street in 1774 (Westminster Poll Book). .

Design & Designing
To judge this casket by the most fashionable standards, it comes at the end of the Rococo period, for by 1766 Neo-classical silver and luxury objects were coming into favour. The figure scenes in contemporary dress are in the French manner. Similar figures were modelled as English porcelain figures, and also painted in enamel on copper boxes.
Collection
Accession number
961:1 to 21-1882

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Record createdMarch 27, 2003
Record URL
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