{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O156503"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156503/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BW4228/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BW4228/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BW4228","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4157","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4156","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4155","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4154","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4120","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BV4119","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/O156503/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O156503","accessionNumber":"LOAN:GILBERT.348-2008","objectType":"Snuffbox","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Presentation gifts such as gold boxes were often adapted when the gift was passed on. This box was probably a Russian gift to a Sultan, which originally held a portrait of the Tsar. The Tsar was later replaced by a portrait of Mahmud II, when the latter gave the box to someone else, possibly a member of the Hohenzollern family. The base is painted with a view of the Rumeli Hisari fortress on the western shore of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. This box is attributed to Pierre-Etienne Théremin, who became a court jeweller to the empress in the closing years of the 18th century.\n\nThéremin used two techniques developed in the 1770s to make this idealised landscape of the Bosphorus Sea strait near Istanbul. The shine and luminosity of the surface come from a clear transparent glaze called ‘Genevan fondant’. The perfect linear patterns incised into the metal, made thanks to the invention of machine engraving, create the shimmering, radial effect in the sky.\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, jewelled, enamelled gold snuffbox with canted corners, the cover and walls profusely set with sprays of diamond foliage, the cover set with a glazed miniature of Mahmud II and the base with a painted scene of Rumeli Hisari on the Bosporous.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Théremin, Pierre-Etienne","id":"A22508"},"association":{"text":"box maker","id":"x40982"},"note":"probably"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"},{"text":"diamond","id":"AAT11084"},{"text":"enamel","id":"AAT14910"},{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"}],"techniques":[{"text":"engine turning","id":"AAT233401"},{"text":"setting","id":"x42734"},{"text":"enamelling","id":"x37485"},{"text":"painting (image-making)","id":"AAT54216"},{"text":"enamelling","id":"x37485"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Engine-turned gold, diamonds, enamel, glazed miniature","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Personal accessories","id":"THES48912"},{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"},{"text":"Enamels","id":"THES48876"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2008BW4228","2008BV4157","2008BV4156","2008BV4155","2008BV4154","2008BV4120","2008BV4119"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"71","id":"THES49723"},"free":"","case":"CA007","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"snuffbox","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"St Petersburg (Russia)","id":"x29178"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Constantinople","id":"x33871"},"association":{"text":"enamelled","id":"x30139"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1800","earliest":"1795-01-01","latest":"1804-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"ca.1831","earliest":"1826-01-01","latest":"1835-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"miniature on ivory"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"8.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"6.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"2.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured 02/05/24 IW ","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"No marks","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Provenance: Prince Oscar of Prussia, 1946.  Princess Hohenzollern.  S. J. Phillips, London, 1984.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Rectangular snuffbox with Mahmud II, Sultan of Turkey. Gold, diamonds, enamel, glazed miniature.  Box: St. Petersburg, 1800, miniature: Constantinople, ca. 1831","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Illustrated London News</u>, February 2nd, 1946, p. 128."},{"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. 132, pp. 380-2.  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. 130-131, no. 47. ISBN 987-1-85177-840-9"}],"production":"Miniature probably by Giovanni Marras (active 1801-30).","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Rumeli Hisar","id":"x40724"},{"text":"Bosporus","id":"x40723"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Mahmud II Sultan of Turkey","id":"N6933"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"sailing ship","id":"AAT125446"},{"text":"castle","id":"AAT6891"},{"text":"landscape","id":"x35496"},{"text":"foliage","id":"x42645"},{"text":"seascape","id":"AAT117546"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"landscape","id":"x35496"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"6. Snuffbox, about 1800, with miniature of Mahmud II, Sultan of Turkey, about 1831\r\n\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.348-2008","date":{"text":"16/11/2016","earliest":"2016-11-16","latest":"2016-11-16"}},{"text":"Snuffbox with Mahmud II, Sultan of Turkey\r\nBox: about 1800. Miniature: about 1831\r\n\r\nPresentation gifts such as gold boxes were often adapted\r\nwhen the gift was passed on. This box was probably a\r\nRussian gift to a Sultan, which originally held a portrait\r\nof the Tsar. The Tsar was later replaced by a portrait of\r\nMahmud II, when the latter gave the box to someone else,\r\npossibly a member of the Hohenzollern family. The base\r\nis painted with a view of the Rumeli Hisari fortress on the\r\nwestern shore of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.\r\n\r\nBox: St Petersburg, Russia; probably Pierre-Etienne\r\nThéremin (active in St Petersburg 1793–1802)\r\nMiniature: Constantinople, Turkey;\r\nprobably Giovanni Marras (active 1801–30)\r\nEngine-turned gold, enamel, diamonds and glazed miniature\r\nFormerly in the collection of Prince Oscar of Prussia\r\nand the Princess Hohenzollern\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.348-2008","date":{"text":"2009","earliest":"2009-01-01","latest":"2009-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["LOAN:GILBERT.348-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"348","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:GILBERT","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"GB 98"},{"type":{"text":"The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House","id":"THES50384"},"number":"1996.448"},{"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":["2018LC0942","2018LC0944","2019LR6751","2019LT5843","2019LW3528"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-26","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-19","availableToBook":false}}