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Box

15th century
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 306
This tooled leather box served as an inkwell. Other boxes of similar construction but different shape were used for holding quills, rulers, or knives and for storing ink pigments and pounce (powder for drying a page).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Box
  • Date: 15th century
  • Culture: Italian
  • Medium: Leather (Cuir bouilli), on wood core with textile interior, traces of gilding
  • Dimensions: Overall: 4 3/4 x 2 5/8 in. (12 x 6.7 cm)
  • Classification: Leatherwork
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1950
  • Object Number: 50.53.2a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters
More Artwork
Virginal, Wood, parchment, ivory, paint, Italian
Italian
1540
Coffret, Leather (Cuir bouilli), polychromy, gilded silver and enamel coat of arms, gilt copper alloy mounts on wood core, French (?)
French (?)
late 14th century
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Gold, ronde-basse enamel, and jewels, French
French
early 15th century
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Francesco Colonna  Italian, Printed book with woodcut illustrations
Multiple artists/makers
December 1499
Box for circumcision instruments, Leather (cuir bouilli), moulded and tooled, with traces of red polychromy and gilding, wooden carcass (conifer), painted interior, Northern Italian or Flemish
Northern Italian or Flemish
1520–1530

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