Snuff Box & Cover

Dateca. 1755

MediumFused silverplate (Sheffield Plate); silver; tortoiseshell

DimensionsOH: 1 1/16"; Diam.: 2 1/4"

Credit LineGift of Rockwell Gardiner

Object number1950-132,A&B

DescriptionCircular snuff box with a conforming cover held in place by friction. The top of the cover is of tortoiseshell with a convex surface. The design is inlaid in silver on the top surface in the pique pose technique, consisting of a border of scrolls and other forms enclosing a scene of a fox watching hungrily white a stork is eating dinner from a long-necked vase (from Aesop's FABLES, "The Fox and the Stork"). A small tree stands at the left to the rear of the fox. Above are two large double-winged insects in flight with a bird following. The tortoiseshell is held in a molded band of silver-coated copper which fits onto a conforming molded band of the same material, which forms the sides of the box. The bottom of the box is also of tortoiseshell having a series of concentric incised lines on the underside.
Label TextSmall circular boxes with pull-off covers are among the first articles produced in fused silverplate. The cover and base of this box are of tortoiseshell, the former inlaid with silver in a scene from Aesop's fable of the fox and the crane. The box is of conventional construction. Its cover and base are held by the overlapped edges of their swaged and seamed sides. Both are backed with plain copper discs. Plated on only one side, their interiors are tinned.

InscribedNone
MarkingsUnmarked.
ProvenanceGift of Rockwell Gardiner, Stamford, Conneetieut
Acquired by CWF in 1950