Snuffbox
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain, gold, lacquer, mother-of-pearl, stone
Dimensions
1 3/16 x 2 3/16 x 2 13/16 in. (3 x 5.6 x 7.1cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
German, Meissen
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1955
Accession Number
55.216.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate snuffbox, crafted around 1750 by the renowned Meissen Manufactory and by Johann Martin Heinrici exemplifies the pinnacle of 18th-century European porcelain artistry. Measuring just 1 3/16 x 2 3/16 x 2 13/16 inches, it was designed as a luxury accessory for gentlemen to carry finely ground tobacco snuff—a fashionable indulgence among the elite during the Rococo period. Vibrant fruit motifs, likely rendered in Heinrici's skilled hand, adorn its surface, capturing the era's delight in naturalistic abundance and playful opulence. Meissen, founded in 1710 near Dresden, Germany, revol...