Toilet box containing three smaller boxes

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

Object Information
  • 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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