Tobacco box
An oblong box with rounded ends. Its lid is divided in three. The central field is engraved with a scene showing a man and a woman before a house, with a sun on the horizon. The side fields show leaf-scroll decoration and a serpentine line. Inscribed below: De man hout het huijs de vrou gaat loopen (The man keeps the house, the woman goes out).
The underside has similar leaf scrolls on the side panels; in the center a rendezvous between an amorous couple is watched by a male spectator, who is seen half- length in the left foreground. A similar figure appears on several boxes (see Figures 27, 29) and seems to function as a sort of narrator or commentator. Inscribed below: Liefde op de seijde daar de taas haangt (With an affair on the side the trouble starts).
Lined rims. The sides are decorated with running hares and dogs as well as geometrical ornament.
The underside has similar leaf scrolls on the side panels; in the center a rendezvous between an amorous couple is watched by a male spectator, who is seen half- length in the left foreground. A similar figure appears on several boxes (see Figures 27, 29) and seems to function as a sort of narrator or commentator. Inscribed below: Liefde op de seijde daar de taas haangt (With an affair on the side the trouble starts).
Lined rims. The sides are decorated with running hares and dogs as well as geometrical ornament.
Artwork Details
- Title: Tobacco box
- Date: 18th century
- Culture: Dutch
- Medium: Brass, copper
- Dimensions: 1 7/16 x 6 3/4 x 2 in. (3.7 x 17.1 x 5.1 cm)
- Classification: Metalwork-Brass
- Credit Line: Gift of C. Gustave Mourraille, in memory of his sister, Miss M. Mathilde Mourraille, 1957
- Object Number: 57.108.2
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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Johann Heinrich Giese
ca. 1760–65
Dutch
18th century
Dutch
18th century
probably Netherlandish
early 17th century
Jan Jansen Bockeltz
ca. 1605–10
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