On display

Snuff Box

ca. 1750 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Shells and shapes inspired by shells were popular in the middle of the eighteenth century as they were seen as a perfect expression of the prevailing rococo fashion of the day. Indeed the word 'rococo' derives from the French term 'rocailles' used to describe the ornament of shell-incrusted rocks found in fashionable grottoes and other architectural structures.

At this time, the taking of snuff (finely-ground and blended tobacco) was considered a very fashionable past-time and the snuff-box became a necessary accessory for any person of taste and refinement. Tobacco and snuff were expensive and seen as exotic and desirable. Different types of shell-shaped snuff boxes are found in precious metals, enamel and porcelain as the natural form is an ideal shape for a small box with a hinged cover. At the Capodimonte porcelain factory in Naples boxes of this shape were some of the earliest items made and are described in the records as having small 'fruttiglie de mare' (fruits of the sea), on their covers.

Snuff boxes were often given as gifts between those romanticaly involved, or would-be romantically involved. This idea is reinforced here by the finely painted interior of the box. The scene depicts Dido, Queen of Carthage, the tragic heroine from the classical text, Virgil's Aeneid, after her abandonment by the Trojan warrior Aeneas.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Soft-paste porcelain mounted in copper gilt, gilded and painted with enamels
Brief description
Snuff box of soft-paste porcelain mounted in copper gilt and painted with enamels, Capodimonte porcelain factory, Capo di Monte, ca. 1744-1750.
Physical description
Snuff box of soft-paste porcelain mounted in copper gilt and painted with enamels. In the shape of a series of overlapping bivalve and other sea-shells. The larger shells outside are white and the smaller shells are scattered over them. Inside, the well is entirely covered with gilding. On the inside of the cover is painted the figure of a young female reclining on a bed. In the distance is a two-masted vessel of the Fleet at anchor. The subject has been identified as 'Didone abbandonata' (Dido/Didone, Queen of Carthage, abandoned).
Dimensions
  • Width: 69mm
  • Closed height: 52mm
  • Open height: 98mm
  • Depth: 59mm
Credit line
Purchased with Art Fund support
Subjects depicted
Summary
Shells and shapes inspired by shells were popular in the middle of the eighteenth century as they were seen as a perfect expression of the prevailing rococo fashion of the day. Indeed the word 'rococo' derives from the French term 'rocailles' used to describe the ornament of shell-incrusted rocks found in fashionable grottoes and other architectural structures.

At this time, the taking of snuff (finely-ground and blended tobacco) was considered a very fashionable past-time and the snuff-box became a necessary accessory for any person of taste and refinement. Tobacco and snuff were expensive and seen as exotic and desirable. Different types of shell-shaped snuff boxes are found in precious metals, enamel and porcelain as the natural form is an ideal shape for a small box with a hinged cover. At the Capodimonte porcelain factory in Naples boxes of this shape were some of the earliest items made and are described in the records as having small 'fruttiglie de mare' (fruits of the sea), on their covers.

Snuff boxes were often given as gifts between those romanticaly involved, or would-be romantically involved. This idea is reinforced here by the finely painted interior of the box. The scene depicts Dido, Queen of Carthage, the tragic heroine from the classical text, Virgil's Aeneid, after her abandonment by the Trojan warrior Aeneas.
Bibliographic references
  • For a similar box in the Mueso di San Martino, Naples, dated to ca. 1750, see Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Fascination of Fragility, 2010, cat. 105, where it is stated that Minieri Riccio mentions that these boxes were called 'fruttiglie de mare' (fruits of the sea) and that Giovanni Caselli had painted two of them in 1743; the painting on this Museo di San Martino box has been attributed to Caselli, and by extension to this V&A box; and the original wax model is attributed to Giuseppe Gricci (Angela Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli, Naples, 1986, cat. 190; Alessandra Mottola Molfino, L'Arte della Porcellana in Italia, 1977, fig. 113, illustrating V&A C.110-1945, where the scene on the inside of the cover is identified as 'Didone abbandonata', (Dido/Didone, Queen of Carthage, abandoned); see also Barbara Beaucamp-Markowsky, Boîtes en Porcelaine ..., 1985, nos. 483-484).
  • Caròla-Perrotti, Angela, Curator. Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli, Capodimonte e Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea 1743-1806, exhibition at the Museo Archeologogico Nazionale, Naples, December 1986-April 1987, illustrated p. 236, cited p. 234. See also catalogue no. 190, pp.247-248 for a box of the same shape with a finely painted scene to the interior of the cover.
  • For another snuff box modelled by Giuseppe Gricci and with inside cover attributed to Giovanni Caselli, see lot 19, Bonhams, 'Fine European Ceramics', 7 December 2017.
Collection
Accession number
C.110-1945

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
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