Snuffbox

Small gold boxes intended to hold snuff, a form of powdered and often scented tobacco, became a focus of an elaborate social ritual and a symbol of extravagance and vanity in eighteenth-century France.

The containers were usually of such luxurious nature that they were the ultimate fashion accessories in eighteenth-century Europe and were frequently given as presents. Beginning in the 1720s and continuing up to the French Revolution, snuff boxes were produced in significant quantities.

Boxes of varicolored gold were made predominantly in the 1750s. Different alloys were combined with gold to create a range of colors, including green, red, blue and white. Here, various colored flower sprays in relief, each element individually soldered onto the surface, contrasts with the finely ribbed background.

A number of snuffboxes by this maker, Charles Le Bastier, are in The Met collection, including 48.187.382 which is silver and partly gilt. The popularity of snuffboxes extended to all levels of society and for those who could not afford gold boxes, boxes were produced in less expensive materials.

Daughter of one of the founders of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, Catherine D. Wentworth (1865–1948) was an art student and painter who lived in France for thirty years. She became one of the most important American collectors of eighteenth-century French silver and on her death in 1948 bequeathed part of her significant collection of silver, gold boxes, French furniture and textiles to the Metropolitan Museum.