Advanced Search 
View: Closed
Snuffbox
Made at: Meissen Manufactory (Germany)
German
about 1745–50
Object Place: Europe, Germany
Medium/Technique
Hard-paste porcelain decorated in polychrome enamels and gold, with gold mounts
Dimensions
3.5 x 7.5 cm (1 3/8 x 2 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Rita and Frits Markus
Accession Number1982.775
CollectionsEurope
DescriptionThe rectangular molded box has a slightly domed cover and is fitted with gold mounts. The top, sides, and base of the exterior of the box are decorated with shaped reserves framed by polychrome scrolls, shells, and flowers within which are thin lines of gold. The scenes in the reserve panels, painted in dark brown, were applied before the copper-green enamel was fired and are in, rather than under, the translucent ground. Each scene depicts figures in landscape settings with a cityscape in the distance. On the cover a seated couple converse with a man who holds a tall staff, the reserve on the front of the box depicts a seated couple serenaded by a reclining boy playing the mandolin; on the base of the box a seated woman is entertained by a man playing a flute and a young boy playing a clarinet; the back reserve shows a
seated couple in conversation with a young girl standing to the left; on the right side of the box a couple embrace, and on the left side a woman converses with a young girl. The remainder of the surface of the box is covered with a lozenge-patterned ground in two tones of puce. Painted on the inside of the cover is a polychrome landscape scene of a couple dancing accompanied by a woman playing a mandolin and a man playing a flute. Behind the musicians and to the right of the dancers is a curved, smooth-sided stone wall surmounted by a tall vase. A sheep lies next to the mandolin player and to the side of a flowering rose bush. A young man is seated on the ground in the left fore-ground. In the distance a river and cityscape are visible. A diaper pattern painted in puce covers the inside of the lower section of the box. The gold mounts are engraved with a lozenge pattern matching the painted puce ground and are waved on the inside cases.
seated couple in conversation with a young girl standing to the left; on the right side of the box a couple embrace, and on the left side a woman converses with a young girl. The remainder of the surface of the box is covered with a lozenge-patterned ground in two tones of puce. Painted on the inside of the cover is a polychrome landscape scene of a couple dancing accompanied by a woman playing a mandolin and a man playing a flute. Behind the musicians and to the right of the dancers is a curved, smooth-sided stone wall surmounted by a tall vase. A sheep lies next to the mandolin player and to the side of a flowering rose bush. A young man is seated on the ground in the left fore-ground. In the distance a river and cityscape are visible. A diaper pattern painted in puce covers the inside of the lower section of the box. The gold mounts are engraved with a lozenge pattern matching the painted puce ground and are waved on the inside cases.