box;
cameo
- Museum number
- 1978,1002.769
- Description
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Oblong tortoise-shell box with gold mounts within a chased-gold border with blue enamel rim and set with a sardonyx cameo of a goat standing on a thyrsus, in the antique manner. The box has an assay mark, a charge mark, a discharge mark and a maker's mark.
- Production date
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18thC(late) (cameo)
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1789 (box)
- Dimensions
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Height: 2.50 centimetres (box)
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Length: 10 centimetres (box)
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Width: 4.10 centimetres (box)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from catalogue of the Hull Grundy Gift (Gere et al 1984) no 872:
Vachette (1746-1839) was one of the most celebrated French box-makers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The collections of this Department include a documented gold and enamel box by Vachette of slightly later date, set with an antique cameo of a satyr seated on a goat, given by Pope Pius VI to the Emperor Napoleon I. The box was presented by Napoleon to Lady Holland who bequeathed it to the Museum in 1846 (1846.1-24.1). The border of chased-gold reliefwork with blue enamel rim, similar to that on the Hull Grundy box, is characteristic of French box-mounts of the period. (Charlotte Gere)
- Location
- On display (G47/dc4)
- Acquisition date
- 1978-1981
- Acquisition notes
- Cameo Corner, 26 Museum Street, London WC1. Original invoice for £45 to Anne Hull Grundy dated 8.9.1961, described as 'Tortoiseshell box, cameo set in top, gold mounted'.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1978,1002.769
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: HG.769 (masterlist number)
