| Description
Unlike most of the gold boxes in the Gilbert Collection, rather
than a snuffbox, this type of box is known as a bonbonnière
and would have contained sweetmeats to freshen the breath, rather
like peppermints.
The cover of the circular box is decorated
with a micromosaic panel of
a hound seated on the grass, with a deep blue background. On the
base of the box there is a micromosaic panel of a butterfly, also
on a deep blue ground, bordered by carnelian ovals and turquoise
and jasper forget-me-nots.
The walls have panels of lapis lazuli, some hung with wreaths of
laurel in green jasper, within similar borders.
Commentary
The box is attributed to the Dresden workshop of Johann Christian
Neuber, while the micromosaics were most likely produced in the
studio of Giacomo Raffaelli, one of the most talented of the Roman
mosaicists.
The inclusion of a Roman mosaic on a German
box demonstrates the wide popularity of this medium throughout Europe.
Glossaries
micromosaics - made from
thousands of tiny coloured enamel rods, painstakingly assembled
and secured with a slow drying adhesive
turquoise - semiprecious stone coloured greenish-blue
by the presence of aluminium and copper
jasper - a gemstone, usually coloured red from
iron impurities
back to the
collection
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Circular bonbonnière made in
Dresden decorated with micromosaics made in Rome. |
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the
Gilbert silver