{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O156450"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156450/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HM1874/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HM1874/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2015HM1874","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV3951","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV3950","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV3949","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV3948","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV3947","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV3928","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BU2347","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O156450/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O156450","accessionNumber":"LOAN:GILBERT.320-2008","objectType":"Snuffbox","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Jean Ducrollay, the maker of this box, was one of the most esteemed gold box makers in Paris. Born in 1709, he was apprenticed to Jean Drais and became a master in 1734. He is recorded in the royal inventories as making boxes for the French court of Louis XV, one of which was presented to the Ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire in 1757. An album containing designs from Ducrollay's workshop is now in the collection of the V&A (museum no. E.897-1988).\r\n\r\nThis box was designed for two different flavours of snuff (powdered tobacco). It opens both at the cover and the base. The surface is decorated with a pattern of ribbons on a reeded ground, produced by engine-turning. Around 1750, the use of a machine to allow patterns to be engraved on a gold ground (engine-turning) became widespread. Engine-turning can be carried out in straight or curved lines, allowing a variety of patterns to be produced, using straight-line or circular machines. Although the decoration is carried out with a machine, great skill is required from the operator to ensure that pieces are properly aligned and that an equal amount of pressure is applied.\r\n\r\nSir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world’s great decorative art collections, including silver,  mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes.  Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.","physicalDescription":"A rectangular gold double snuffbox, engine-turned overall with undulating ribbons over a reeded ground. The box opens at both cover and base, with an internal divider between.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Ducrollay, Jean","id":"A6059"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"}],"techniques":[{"text":"engine turning","id":"AAT233401"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Engine-turned gold","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2015HM1874","2008BV3951","2008BV3950","2008BV3949","2008BV3948","2008BV3947","2008BV3928","2008BU2347"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"71","id":"THES49723"},"free":"","case":"CA008","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"snuffbox","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"marked","id":"x32454"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1754-1755","earliest":"1754-01-01","latest":"1755-12-31"},"association":{"text":"marked","id":"x32454"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"4.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"8.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"4.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured closed -  29/01/24 IW","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Provenance: Wartski, London.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Rectangular gold double snuffbox, engine-turned overall with undulating ribbons over a reeded ground, Jean Ducrollay, Paris 1754-55.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ricketts, Howard. <u>Objects of Vertu</u>. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1971, ill. p. 17."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Habsburg-Lothringen, Géza von. <u>Gold boxes from the collection of Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert</u>.  R. & A. Gilbert, 1983. 125 p., ill. Cat no. 43, p. 87. ISBN. 0961039809."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Truman, Charles.<u>The Gilbert collection of gold boxes</u>, Vol. I. Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 1991, cat. no.12, pp. 54-55.  ISBN.0875871623"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Zech, Heike. <u>Gold Boxes. Masterpieces from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection. </u>London: V&A Publishing, 2015, pp. 42-43, no. 6.  ISBN 987-1-85177-840-9"},{"reference":{"text":"Schroder, Timothy. <i>Gold boxes : from the Gilbert collection : an exhibition</i>, Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986","id":"AUTH354598"},"details":"50","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"<i>The art of the goldsmith & the jeweler; a loan exhibition for the benefit of the Young Women's Christian Association of the City of New York</i>, New York : A La Vieille Russie, 1968","id":"AUTH357879"},"details":"66","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"8. Double-opening snuffbox\r\n1754-55\r\n\r\nParis, France, Jean Ducrollay (1710-87, goldsmith)\r\nEngine-turned gold\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.320-2008","date":{"text":"2024","earliest":"2024-01-01","latest":"2024-12-31"}},{"text":"9. Double snuffbox\r\n1754–55\r\n\r\nThis box opens on both sides, the mechanism almost invisible thanks to discrete hinges. The pattern was created by engine-turning, a process where the box revolved on a lathe, and a cutter engraved the pattern guided by a ‘rosette’ attached to the lathe.\r\n\r\nParis, France; mark of Jean Ducrollay (1710–87)\r\nEngine-turned gold\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.320-2008","date":{"text":"16/11/2016","earliest":"2016-11-16","latest":"2016-11-16"}}],"partNumbers":["LOAN:GILBERT.320-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"320","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:GILBERT","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Exhibition number","id":"THES288584"},"number":"J3 (British Antique Dealers' Association Art Treasures Exhibition 1979)"},{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"GB 22"},{"type":{"text":"The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House","id":"THES50384"},"number":"1996.387"},{"type":{"text":"The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House","id":"THES50384"},"number":"1996.791.1"},{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"MIN 26"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LU5985"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-12","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-19","availableToBook":false}}