| Description
This superb jewelled, varicoloured-gold snuffbox is decorated on
each surface with figures in classical landscapes in coloured gold
within reeded borders entwined
with foliage and flowers. The cover is encrusted with diamonds in
the architectural details and with four pink-foiled
diamonds and numerous rose diamonds around the borders.
Commentary
The profusion of diamonds on this box suggest a Russian origin although
the goldsmith’s work is possibly Austrian - the box is unsigned
and the maker’s mark is unrecorded. Since many of the goldsmiths
working in Russia at this time were immigrants attracted to the
court of Catherine the Great, the attribution of a particular nationality
is unrealistic.
The box was presented to the Englishman
Nathaniel Dimsdale by the Russian imperial family in gratitude for
the medical services rendered by he and his father . . .
Thomas Dimsdale (1712-1800), an English
doctor and advocate of inoculation against smallpox, was asked to
visit Russia to advise the empress, Catherine the Great, on a programme
of inoculation during the Russian smallpox epidemic of 1768. Dimsdale,
accompanied by his son Nathaniel (1748-1811), travelled to Russia
and successfully inoculated the empress and her son, Grand Duke
Paul.
In return, Thomas Dimsdale was created
a baron of the Russian empire and appointed councillor of state
and physician to the empress. In addition he received a lump sum
of £10,000, an annuity of £500, a further £2,000
for his expenses, and a diamond-set portrait of Catherine and Paul.
Nathaniel Dimsdale received the same title as his father and the
Grand Duke also presented him with this superb snuffbox.
Glossaries
reeded - decorated with
thin, parallel, convex mouldings, often used for the ornamentation
of a border
foiled -placing metal foil behind gemstones to
reflect the light
back to the
collection
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Diamond encrusted snuffbox presented
to Nathaniel Dimsdale by Grand Duke Paul of Russia, around
1768. |
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the
Gilbert silver