{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O156471"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156471/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BW4021/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BW4021/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BW4021","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BW4134","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4153","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4152","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4151","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4118","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4117","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/O156471/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O156471","accessionNumber":"LOAN:GILBERT.380-2008","objectType":"Snuffbox","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Musical boxes and boxes with automata became popular in France in the late eighteenth century. In London, the fashion was described by Horace Walpole writing to Mary Berry in 1791:\r\n\r\n\"I should tell you that I have been at Sir Joseph Banks's literary saturnalia, where was a Parisian watchmaker who produced the smallest automaton that I suppose was ever created. It was a rich snuffbox, not too large for a woman. On opening the lid, an enamelled bird started up, sat on the rim, turned round, fluttered its wings and piped in a delightful tone the notes of different birds, particularly the jug, jug of the nightingale. It is the prettiest plaything you ever saw- the price tempting- only five hundred pounds'. \r\n\r\nWhen the key is wound on the front of this box, a ship in full sail moves across the open sea. A button hidden on the front activates a four bell musical carillon. The gold box is marked for Joseph-Etienne Blerzy but the movement, produced one year earlier, was imported from Geneva. Swiss workmen specialised in making sophisticated automata and musical movements.\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":"An oval, varicoloured gold musical automaton snuffbox, the cover chased in four colour gold with two amorous couples in a landscape between a castle and a cliff.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Blerzy, Joseph-Etienne","id":"A14796"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"},{"text":"glass","id":"AAT10797"}],"techniques":[{"text":"chasing","id":"AAT54016"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Chased gold, glass, automaton mechanism and carillon","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2008BW4021","2008BW4134","2008BV4153","2008BV4152","2008BV4151","2008BV4118","2008BV4117"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"71","id":"THES49723"},"free":"","case":"CA016","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"snuffbox","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"marked","id":"x32454"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Geneva","id":"x32975"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1786-1787","earliest":"1786-01-01","latest":"1787-12-31"},"association":{"text":"marked","id":"x32454"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"ca.1785","earliest":"1780-01-01","latest":"1789-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"8.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"6.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"4.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured 29/01/24 IW","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Provenance: Henry and Sidney Berry Hill, New York.  Sydney J.  Lamon, sale, Christie's New York, lot 174A, June 14, 1982.  A la Vieille Russie, New York.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Automaton snuffbox. Gold, glass, automaton mechanism and carillon. Box: Joseph-Etienne Blerzy, Paris, 1786-87.  Movement: Geneva, about 1785","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Chapuiz and Droz.  <u>Les automates, figures artificielles d'hommes et d'animaux, histoire et technique</u>. London, 1949, figs. 222 & 223."},{"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. 54, p. 103. 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. 33, pp. 111-12.  ISBN.0875871623"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Maurice, Klaus and Otto Mayr, eds. <u>The Clockwork Universe: German  Clocks and Automata 1550-1650</u>. New York: Neale Watson Academic  Publications, 1980. Catalogue of the exhibition held Bayerisches  Nationalmuseum, Munich, 15 April - 30 September 1980 and Smithsonian  Institute, Washington DC, 7 November 1980 - 15 February 1981. ISBN  0882021885."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Maurice, Klaus. <u>Die deutsche Räderuhr</u>, 2 vols, Munich, Beck, 1976. ISBN 3406062970."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Chapuis, Alfred and Edmond Droz. <u>Les Automates. Figures artificielles d'hommes et d'animaux: Histoire et technique</u>. Neuchâtel: Éditions du Griffon, 1949. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>The Marvellous Mechanical Museum</u>, ed. A. Harrison. Catalogue of the exhibition held at Compton Verney, 30 June - 30 September 2018. Compton Verney: Compton Verney, 2018. ISBN 978-1-9999659-1-4."},{"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":"67","free":""}],"production":"The movement made in Geneva, c.1785","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"8. Automaton snuffbox\r\nBox, 1786–87. Movement, about 1785\r\n\r\nThis musical automaton plays two different tunes. Its sides have been carefully pierced to allow the music to resonate. A video of the automaton playing is available on the V&A website.\r\nBox: Paris, France; mark of Joseph-Etienne Blerzy (active 1768–1808)\r\nMovement: Geneva, Switzerland\r\nChased coloured gold, glass, automaton mechanism and carillon\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.380-2008","date":{"text":"16/11/2016","earliest":"2016-11-16","latest":"2016-11-16"}}],"partNumbers":["LOAN:GILBERT.380-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"380","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:GILBERT","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"GB 52"},{"type":{"text":"The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House","id":"THES50384"},"number":"1996.411"},{"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":["2018LC1179","2019LP6438","2019LT7065","2019LW9780"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-12","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-19","availableToBook":false}}