Gold and turtle-shell note book and stylus, made in Italy, ca. 1735-45.

Turtle shell decorated with piquéwork in gold. On the front in piqué posé a seated figure of Bacchus, his arm on a conucopia, the wreath on his head being adjusted by a winged putto, is placed within a large symmetrical reserve of scrolls and foliage and foules point d'or. Smaller reserves above and below contain a fishscale pattern in piqué. Outside the reserves are two pairs of large flowers and further scrolling foliage. On the back a similar design, but with a bacchanalian scene in which a seated woman holds a cornucopia in her right hand, and in her left raises a glass which is also held by putto. A further putto kneels in front of her. The covers are lined in pink fabric which on one side is made into an open-topped pocket with folding sides. There are two holes in the fabric lining the interior of the spine. These were probably for the ends of a string which would have held in place folded paper for notes.

The stylus is held in place by fittings along the long edge of the top cover of the book: at the top a ring, in the middle two rings, and at the bottom a plate with a hole of sufficient size to allow the point of the stylus to pass through it. At the top and bottom are two gold asymmetric shell shapes. In the middle a steel catch is covered by a swirling rosette, the push for depressing the catch now missing. The shell shapes and the rosette are the most rococo of the ornaments on the notebook.

The lower end of the stylus has a rounded point which would have been used to write on prepared paper on which messages would have shown up. The stylus can be unscrewed to reveal a nib.

Griffin Bequest

Received in 1960 as the Griffin Bequest from Miss Griffin (died 1960) of Minchinhampton and Mrs Griffin (died 1937) of Leicester. It was described on acquisition as having formerly been in the collection of Sir Julian Goldsmith (1838-96).

Acquisition RF: 60/2897

Italy, and in particular, Naples, were famous for piqué work in tortoise shell in the eighteenth century. The turtles used are said originally to have been of Mediterranean origin. When he visited Naples in 1755, the British architect Robert Adam bought three 'very handsome gold boxes of yellow and black tortoise-shell studded with gold'.

The work is described as posé d'or when the gold is inlayed in flat strips into shallow channels cut in the surface of the tortoise shell, and as foules point d'or when there are numerous small pin heads. If the pins are larger and more widely space the term is clouté d'or.

M.174:1, 2-1960