Images(4)

Tobacco box & cover

Date1718-1719

Marked by Edward Cornock

OriginEngland, London

MediumSilver (Britannia)

DimensionsOH 7/8" OL 3 7/8" OW 3"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1964-1,A&B

DescriptionShort straight-sided box of oval plan with loose cover molded at edge fitting over plain rim of body with single molding at base; cover engraved with scrolls and flowers enclosing a seated male figure upholding a wine glass in his right hand and smoking a pipe held by his left hand. Cypher of reversed and ornamented "Ks" engraved on underside of base.
Label TextEven though tobacco has been smoked in England from the latter part of the sixteenth century, few silver tobacco boxes from before 1660 survive. Most seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century examples are of relatively large size and oval plan, having either hinged or pull-off covers. Being a highly personal accessory, they are often finely and elaborately engraved with coats of arms, cyphers, and inscriptions relating to ownership. This example is particularly notable for its handsome representational engraving. The seated gentleman with pipe and wineglass was taken directly from the Essaisde Gravure Par Pierre Bourdon Maitre Graveur a Paris. Ou ton voit de beaux Contours d'ornements traites dans le gout de l'Art, propre aux Horlogeurs, Orfevres, Cizeleurs, Graveurs et a toutes autres persones curieuses (Paris, 1703), vol. 1, pl. 2. The profusion of scrolls issuing from the pipe and enclosing the figure are an amplification of those in Bourdon and are related to the overall scrollwork shown by him in the designs of back-plates for watches. Edward Cormack, who registered his first mark with the Goldsmiths' Company in 1707, was a prolific maker of tobacco boxes.

An oval London tobacco box of 1677/78, originally belonging to Benjamin Harrison (1645-1712) of Surry County, Virginia, was exhibited in 1940 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.
InscribedOwner's cypher engraved on underside of body
MarkingsMarked in relief on bezel of body with 1) sponsor's mark "CO" in block letters within a circle; 2) lion's head erased; 3) figure of Britannia; and 4) date letter "C". Sponsor's mark and lion's head erased also struck in relief on underside of cover
ProvenanceJ. Kryle Fletcher, Newport, Monmouthshire (1932)
Christie, Manson & Woods, London (1934; purchased by the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Ltd., London)
Firestone and Parson, Boston
Acquired by CWF in 1964.

Exhibition(s)