Snuff Box
ca. 1760 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Snuff box of hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and mounted in gilt bronze. Oval with slightly concave sides, flat oval foot and slightly domed cover. Outside the decoration is mainly in low relief, supplemented with painting in colours. On the cover is the head of Medusa with snakes in her hair. Round the sides are formal scrolls, shell and lattice ornament painted with sprays of flowers below. In side the cover is a half-length figure of a classical muse, wreathed, with a red mantle, and playing a lute. Trees and sky behind.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and mounted in gilt bronze |
| Brief description | Snuff box of hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and mounted in gilt bronze, Doccia porcelain factory, Doccia, ca. 1760 |
| Physical description | Snuff box of hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and mounted in gilt bronze. Oval with slightly concave sides, flat oval foot and slightly domed cover. Outside the decoration is mainly in low relief, supplemented with painting in colours. On the cover is the head of Medusa with snakes in her hair. Round the sides are formal scrolls, shell and lattice ornament painted with sprays of flowers below. In side the cover is a half-length figure of a classical muse, wreathed, with a red mantle, and playing a lute. Trees and sky behind. |
| Dimensions |
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| Subjects depicted | |
| Bibliographic reference | Frescobaldi Malenchini, Livia ed. With Balleri, Rita and Rucellai, Oliva, ‘Amici di Doccia Quaderni, Numero VII, 2013, The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection’, Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, 2014
pp. 46-47, Cat. 20
20. Snuff box with bas-relief scenes
circa 1760
hard-paste porcelain painted in colours
and gold
h 4,5 cm; length 7,5 cm; width 6,4 cm
no mark
inv. C.31-1962
purchase: £ 30
Oval snuff box with decorations in bas relief, an allegorical figure, painted polychrome floral motifs; the rim and hinges are of gilded pinchbeck probably made in the silversmith’s shop (Lavoreria degli Argentieri) of the Doccia factory (AGL, I, 2, f. 38, Fabbrica di Doccia, Dimostrazioni eRistretti, fasc. 111).The body and cover of the snuff box are decorated with cartouches; on the inside of the cover there is the figure of a young woman with a crown of laurel playing a musical instrument and on the outside is the head of Medusa based on a classical model that was also used by other European manufacturers Like Wedgwood who used one based on a version by James Tassie (BUTEN 1980, p. 144). The catalogue La descrizione istorica del Museo di Cristiano Dehn, edited by Francesco Maria Dolce in 1772 reveals that the Medusa that appears on this snuff box was copied from a “modern carving in sardonyx” which was inspired by a similar subject located inside a basin in the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albani (DOLCE 1772, vol. II, p. 55; PIRZIO BIROLI STEFANELLI 2007, p. 286, cat. 26; I wish to thank Riccardo Gennaioli for his assistance in locating the source) which has been in the Louvre since 1815. The basin was discovered in the early 18thcentury in Rome at Marmorata in the Orti Sforza Cesarini (AMBROGI 2005, p. 213) and as early as 1744 was already described as being the property of Alessandro Albani (FICORONI 1744, p. 194). The shape and decorations of this snuff box suggest that it was produced at Doccia around the 1760s, but we do not know when or how the model for the Medusa head got to the factory. The idea of using glyptic art as a source of models to be transformed into porcelain was Carlo Ginori’s (BENINI 1965), probably suggested by the scientist and scholar Joannon de Saint Laurent of Lorraine (BIANCALANA 2009, p. 40); motifs of this type continued to be used at Doccia until at least the 1780s (DIGIUGNO 2011). Snuff boxes were among the first porcelain objects to be produced by the Doccia factory; in fact, they are mentioned in a list of galanterie dated 1743 delivered to Gaspero Bruschi who is mentioned here as warehouse manager: “26 snuff boxes with bas-relief scenes” (AGL, XV, 2, f. 138, Manifattura di Doccia. Documenti vari, c. 215). In the same year, in the inventory of the store of Giuseppe Sarti in Florence we find a significant number of galanterie and in particular, of snuff boxes: “Snuff boxes of various kinds and with various prices, the same, plain white. The same, with bas-relief scenes” (AGL, XV, 2, f. 138, Manifattura di Doccia. Documenti vari, c.
483).
A.B.
Bibliography: unpublished |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.31-1962 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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