Automaton Box
ca.1820 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
From the decorated outside, showing scrolling foliage and a musical trophy, this box gives no suggestion of the erotic automaton hidden within. The box had no purpose other than to contain this scene and the Swiss mechanisms that worked it.
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.
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 | Chased and enamelled gold; clockwork musical movement |
| Brief description | Rectangular gold box, the cover chased with a musical trophy bordered by scrolling foliage and a band of opaque blue enamel with taille d'épargne foliage, the walls and base similarly decorated. The interior is set with an automated scene of a standing couple taking al fresco pleasure in each other, before an altar, with an amorino playing a lyre, and a tree in coloured golds, before an enamelled landscape. |
| Physical description | Rectangular gold box, the cover chased with a musical trophy bordered by scrolling foliage and a band of opaque blue enamel with foliage, the walls and base similarly decorated. The interior is set with an automated erotic scene before an enamelled landscape. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
| Object history | Provenance Acquired by Arthur Gilbert from S.J. Phillips Ltd, London, 1994 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | From the decorated outside, showing scrolling foliage and a musical trophy, this box gives no suggestion of the erotic automaton hidden within. The box had no purpose other than to contain this scene and the Swiss mechanisms that worked it. 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 reference | Truman, Charles. The Gilbert collection of gold boxes, volume II, London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1999, cat. no. 48, p. 78. ISBN.0856675210 |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | LOAN:GILBERT.1043-2008 |
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| Record created | June 19, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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