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Snuffbox

ca. 1795 (made)
Artist/Maker
Grand Ducal
Place of origin
Florence (city) (made)

Hardstone mosaic (commesso di pietre dure) techniques emerged in Florence, where Ferdinand de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, founded the Grand Ducal Workshop (Galleria dei Lavori, later renamed Opificio delle Pietre Dure) in 1588. It produced this mosaic and still operates today under the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage.
This snuffbox is one of very few examples which are documented in the archives of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. Its designs are after the painter Antonio Cioci (active 1771–92) who embraced the neoclassical style with its musical, agricultural and love trophies. Interestingly, they were not initially intended for a snuffbox but to ornament the frames of the commessi series 'The Arts', produced between 1776 and 1780.

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.

We are grateful to Thomas Greenaway for his help in identifying the stones (2022).

Object details

Object type
Snuffbox
Materials and techniques
nephrite, pietre dure, gold
Gold
Hardstone
Nephrite
Jasper
Hardstone
Chasing
Carving
Pietre Dure
Brief description
hardstone snuffbox with musical trophies, gold mounts
Physical description
Oval, mosaics of hardstones including Egyptian nephrite, calcedonio di Volterra and varieties of jaspers, the cover with a mosaic of a lute, French horn and music sheet, the base with a violin and bow with music sheet the sides with light and dark triangles above a frieze of interlaced ribbons enclosing quatrefoils, the gold mount of the cover is chased with overlapping circlets, gold mounts.
Dimensions
  • Depth: 33mm
  • Width: 93mm
  • Height: 68mm
  • Weight: 260g
Measured 25/04/24 IW
Gallery label
(16/111/2016)
3. Snuffbox with lute and French horn
About 1795

The images on the cover and base of this box are similar to designs by the Florentine painter and printmaker Giuseppe Zocchi (1711–67). Zocchi was employed to provide designs for the Grand Ducal Workshop.

Florence, Italy; Grand Ducal Workshop (Opificio delle Pietre Dure)
Jade, pietre dure, pietre tenere (hard and soft stone mosaic) and gold
Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.435-2008
(2009)
Snuffbox with lute and French horn
About 1795
The images on the cover and base are similar to designs by the Florentine painter Giuseppe Zocchi (1711–67). Zocchi was employed to decorate the ducal palaces of Florence. His designs are in the tradition of Italian stilllife paintings.
Florence, Italy; Grand Ducal Workshop
(Opificio delle Pietre Dure)
Jade, pietre dure, pietre tenere (hard and soft stone mosaic) and gold
Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.435-2008
Credit line
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Object history
Provenance: The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection; sale, Sotheby's New York, 6 & 8 December 1993, lot 219; S.J. Phillips, London, 1993.
Production
The mosaic Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence, late eighteenth century.
Subject depicted
Musical Instruments
Summary
Hardstone mosaic (commesso di pietre dure) techniques emerged in Florence, where Ferdinand de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, founded the Grand Ducal Workshop (Galleria dei Lavori, later renamed Opificio delle Pietre Dure) in 1588. It produced this mosaic and still operates today under the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage.
This snuffbox is one of very few examples which are documented in the archives of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. Its designs are after the painter Antonio Cioci (active 1771–92) who embraced the neoclassical style with its musical, agricultural and love trophies. Interestingly, they were not initially intended for a snuffbox but to ornament the frames of the commessi series 'The Arts', produced between 1776 and 1780.

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.

We are grateful to Thomas Greenaway for his help in identifying the stones (2022).
Bibliographic references
  • Snowman, A. Kenneth. Eighteenth century gold boxes of Europe, London: Faber, 1966, pls. 724-5.
  • Snowman, A. Kenneth. Eighteenth Century gold boxes of Europe, rev. ed. Woodbridge: The Antique Collectors' Club, 1990, pls. 891-2, p. 448. ISBN 1851490728
  • Truman, Charles.The Gilbert collection of gold boxes, volume II, London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1999, cat. no. 62, pp. 97-8. ISBN.0856675210
  • Zech, Heike. Gold Boxes. Masterpieces from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection. London: V&A Publishing, 2015, pp. 134-135, no. 49. ISBN 987-1-85177-840-9
  • Alvar Gonzales-Palacios quoted by Anna Maria Giusti, 2006, Arte e Manifattura di corte a Firenze dal tramonto dei Medici All’ Impero (1732-1815), Firenze, 2006, cat. 89. ISBN 978-8883473258.
  • Alvar Gonzales-Palacios in Murdoch and Zech (eds), Going for Gold: Craftsmanship and Collecting of Gold Boxes, Brighton 2014, p. 172.
Other numbers
  • GB 176 - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 1996.525 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
Collection
Metalwork Collection
Accession number
LOAN:GILBERT.435-2008

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Record createdJune 19, 2008
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156563/snuffbox/
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