Pin box in the shape of a shoe worn by ballerina Marie Taglioni (1804-1884) on her châtelaine. Gold metal lined with velvet

Small gold pin holder in the shape of a shoe, engraved with scrolled foliage design, with attached small gold ring at the heel. The shoe is lined in plum velvet and contains ball-headed gold pins.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

The pin box came with a note written by Margaret Rolfe: "Gold shoe containing pins worn by Marie Taglioni on her châtelaine. Gold knife (S.825-2001) in box."
The purse S.824 -2001 was also worn by Taglioni on her châtelaine.
It is part of a unique collection of memorabilia and personal effects which evoke Marie Taglioni in the last decades of her life.
A collection of Taglioni memorabilia was amassed by Margaret Rolfe, the granddaughter of Taglioni's closest friend in London, Mrs Boggs Rolfe; she attended Taglioni's dancing classes and received many gifts of Taglioni memorabilia, from Taglioni herself, from her grandmother and, after Taglioni's death, from her niece, Marguerite Troubetzkoi. She kept these, with a series of related notes, in various boxes and annotated envelopes (filed separately). These she passed to Cyril Beaumont, probably for the London Archives of the Dance (a number of the objects were referred to in "The London Archives of the Dance and some of its Treasures" by Cyril Beaumont, Ballet Annual, first issue, Adam & Charles Black, London, 1947, p110); the Archives never achieved an independent home and part of the collection, including the Taglioni memorabilia, was stored with Cyril Beaumont, where it became inextricably mixed with his own collection and came to the Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest.

S.826-2001