Toilet box containing three smaller boxes

Factory Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory British

ca. 1761

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 512

Containing a nest of smaller boxes, these pieces may have belonged to a luxurious dressing-table set similar to one advertised by the dealer Burnsall on July 21, 1764: "A most grand and capital Lot of . . . Chelsea Porcelain, containing a dressing Glass and three Drawers . . . with different Gold Instruments and Twelve Toilet Boxes to ditto, all of the rich Mazarine Blue and Gold." The deep blue ground color, known as Mazarine blue, combined with the lavish gold decoration, used at Chelsea as early as 1756, clearly was influenced by Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Toilet box containing three smaller boxes
Factory: Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory (British, 1744–1784)
Date: ca. 1761
Culture: British, Chelsea
Medium: Soft-paste porcelain, Mazarin blue ground with gold decoration
Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): 2 1/4 × 5 × 4 in. (5.7 × 12.7 × 10.2 cm)
Classification: Ceramics-Porcelain
Credit Line: Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964
Object Number: 64.101.501a–h
Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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