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Snuffbox
Small gold boxes intended to hold snuff, a form of powdered and often scented tobacco, became a focus of an elaborate social ritual and a symbol of extravagance and vanity in eighteenth-century France.
The containers were usually of such luxurious nature that they were the ultimate fashion accessories in eighteenth-century Europe and were frequently given as presents. Beginning in the 1720s and continuing up to the French Revolution, snuff boxes were produced in significant quantities.
The snuffbox, marked 1754-55, is an early example of the use of colored gold. The engraved sunburst pattern of radiating lines was a highly fashionable device used as a background to sprays of flowers in relief and often, as here, in variegated colors of gold.
One of the earliest known records of the use of colored gold appears in a description of a miniature frame sold by the marchand-mercier, or dealer in luxury goods, Lazare Duvaux to Mme de Pompadour on July 1, 1755. The frame was described as having “coins et milieux ciselé d’or de couleus” [the corners and middles chased in colored gold]. The technique spread rapidly across Europe and was used in the decoration of a wide range of objects.
By varying the metal of which the alloy is composed, a range of colors could be created. Copper mixed with gold created a red tinge, yellow was achieved by adding charcoal-iron, white was the result of adding silver, which in different proportions could also create green gold, and arsenic or iron filings were used to make blue or gray gold.
Each individual cast and colored element had to be soldered separately onto the surface of the box, before the final chasing and burnishing.
Daughter of one of the founders of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, Catherine D. Wentworth (1865–1948) was an art student and painter who lived in France for thirty years. She became one of the most important American collectors of eighteenth-century French silver and on her death in 1948 bequeathed part of her significant collection of silver, gold boxes, French furniture and textiles to the Metropolitan Museum.
The containers were usually of such luxurious nature that they were the ultimate fashion accessories in eighteenth-century Europe and were frequently given as presents. Beginning in the 1720s and continuing up to the French Revolution, snuff boxes were produced in significant quantities.
The snuffbox, marked 1754-55, is an early example of the use of colored gold. The engraved sunburst pattern of radiating lines was a highly fashionable device used as a background to sprays of flowers in relief and often, as here, in variegated colors of gold.
One of the earliest known records of the use of colored gold appears in a description of a miniature frame sold by the marchand-mercier, or dealer in luxury goods, Lazare Duvaux to Mme de Pompadour on July 1, 1755. The frame was described as having “coins et milieux ciselé d’or de couleus” [the corners and middles chased in colored gold]. The technique spread rapidly across Europe and was used in the decoration of a wide range of objects.
By varying the metal of which the alloy is composed, a range of colors could be created. Copper mixed with gold created a red tinge, yellow was achieved by adding charcoal-iron, white was the result of adding silver, which in different proportions could also create green gold, and arsenic or iron filings were used to make blue or gray gold.
Each individual cast and colored element had to be soldered separately onto the surface of the box, before the final chasing and burnishing.
Daughter of one of the founders of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, Catherine D. Wentworth (1865–1948) was an art student and painter who lived in France for thirty years. She became one of the most important American collectors of eighteenth-century French silver and on her death in 1948 bequeathed part of her significant collection of silver, gold boxes, French furniture and textiles to the Metropolitan Museum.
Artwork Details
- Title: Snuffbox
- Date: 1754–55
- Culture: French, Paris
- Medium: Gold
- Dimensions: 1 1/2 x 3 1/8 x 2 1/4 in. (3.8 x 7.9 x 5.7cm)
- Classification: Metalwork-Gold and Platinum
- Credit Line: Bequest of Catherine D. Wentworth, 1948
- Object Number: 48.187.424
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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