{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O85304"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O85304/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HV5410/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2015HV5410/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2015HV5410","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AE3435","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HV5404","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HV5403","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HV5407","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HV5408","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HV5409","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AJ1730","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AE3436","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O85304/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O85304","accessionNumber":"1444 to D-1902","objectType":"Counter box","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This box contains a set of four more boxes made to contain the counters necessary for playing a card game, probably <i>reversis</i>.  This was an old Italian card game, the basis for two very popular 18th-century games, <i>hombre</i> and <i>quadrille</i>.  Card playing was a necessary accomplishment for those hoping to take their place in polite society and all manner of people played at many levels of society. Such counter boxes would have been a luxurious and fashionable accessory for a card player of either sex. The outer box lid also features characters from the Commedia dell'arte; a singular Pierrot (the sad clown, pining for Columbine) at the bottom of the lid, with two sets of diametrically placed images of the lovers Harlequin and Columbine towards the centre. Centrally on the large box, and on either side of the ivory dial on each smaller box, are two central busts which may represent the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand and his second Dauphine Marie Josephe de Saxe.\r\n\r\nThe boxes and counters were colour coded to relate to the suits of a pack of cards.  Green was for clubs, red for spades, yellow for diamonds and white for hearts. These boxes may have been made by, or in the workshop of, Mariaval. We know little about him, except that he obviously had a large trade in such items, as many sets survive.  He may have been the son of the engraver to the king.  ","physicalDescription":"A rectangular wooden box, with hinged lid of curved section, painted in red and decorated on lid with gilded scrolls and fleur-de-lys, acanthus leaves and Commedia dell'Arte figures, with Harlequin, Columbine and Pierrot depicted, and two central busts which may represent the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand and his second Dauphine Marie Josephe de Saxe.\n\nThe box is lined with blue silk and contains four smaller boxes with hinged lids, of wood, each painted a different colour (red, green, yellow and white), for gaming counters, each set in the centre of the lid with an ivory dial (for counting scores), decorated with penwork and resist-colouring in red and green. The lids of the boxes are decorated with heavy gilded scrolls, raised in relief, the corners set with fleur-de-lys, the areas to each side of the dials set with the same bust of a man and a woman in profile as on the large box lid, above pairs of dolphins (a single dolphin also shown on the dial). The boxes each contain several engraved mother of pearl playing pieces.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mariaval","id":"AUTH315535"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28690"},"note":"Possibly. The coloured printing and penwork decoration on the central dials of the small boxes is close to the decoration on similar boxes (W.21-1985), signed by Mariaval le Jeune.\r\n\r\nMariaval le Jeune seems to have made a speciality of these small boxes of gaming counters (of which a number of sets survive), although his workshop may also have made other small objects in ivory such as fans. Almost nothing is known about Mariaval but he may have been the Claude-Francois Mariaval who was engraver to the king and who is recorded in a notarial deed of 1727, or more likely a son."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"},{"text":"paper","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"silk (textile)","id":"AAT243428"},{"text":"brass","id":"AAT10946"},{"text":"mother of pearl","id":"AAT11835"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"},{"text":"stamping","id":"AAT239001"},{"text":"piercing","id":"AAT231153"},{"text":"engraving","id":"AAT53829"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Painted wood; stamped gilt paper; ivory, carved, joined and decorated with staining in a wax-resist technique, with additional decoration in penwork and paint; silk; pierced and engraved brass and engraved mother of pearl.","categories":[{"text":"Games","id":"THES48947"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2015HV5410","2006AE3435","2015HV5404","2015HV5403","2015HV5407","2015HV5408","2015HV5409","2006AJ1730","2006AE3436"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"2A","id":"THES49831"},"free":"","case":"CA1","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"2A","id":"THES49831"},"free":"","case":"CA1","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"2A","id":"THES49831"},"free":"","case":"CA1","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"2A","id":"THES49831"},"free":"","case":"CA1","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"2A","id":"THES49831"},"free":"","case":"CA1","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Box","id":""}],[{"text":"Counter box","id":""}],[{"text":"Counter box","id":""}],[{"text":"Counter box","id":""}],[{"text":"Counter box","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1750","earliest":"1745-01-01","latest":"1754-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"The counter boxes show portrait busts in profile, of a man (wreathed in laurel) and a woman, with double dolphins under each.  If these are the dauphin, Louis Ferdinand (1729-1765) and his second wife, Marie Josephe de Saxe (1731-1767), as seems likely (his first wife was only dauphine from 1744 until her early death in 1746), then the boxes must date from after 1747, despite their style which might appear to relate more closely to the period 1720-1740."}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"4.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"13/06/2013","earliest":"2013-06-13","latest":"2013-06-13"},"part":"centre of lid, with box closed","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"19","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"13/06/2013","earliest":"2013-06-13","latest":"2013-06-13"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"15.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"13/06/2013","earliest":"2013-06-13","latest":"2013-06-13"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions above taken from large box; dimensions in departmental catalogue H:1 7/8\", W: 7 3/8\", D:4 3/4\"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"These boxes may have been made in the workshop of Mariaval le Jeune (Mariaval the Younger). He seems to have made a speciality of such boxes, featuring ivory stained with this form of wax resist, with details added in penwork and paint. Such boxes are traditionally attributed to a <i>tabletier</i>, a maker of small boxes, of this name, who worked in Paris and, possibly, Rouen. A notarial deed dated 1727 records the name of a Claude-François Mariaval who was engraver to the king (<i>graveur du roi</i>).  This could be the maker of the boxes, or more likely, it was his son who made them. \n\nSets of boxes decorated in the same technique appear regularly at auction and others are held by museums, including the Musées des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. One or more of the boxes in most of these sets is signed by Mariaval. \n\nThe boxes must have been made in the years around the middle of the 18th century, although in a rather old-fashioned style of decoration.  They show portrait profiles of Louis Ferdinand, Dauphin of France (1729-1765) and his second wife, Marie Josephe de Saxe (1731-1767) who did not marry until 1747. ","historicalContext":"Such boxes were made in sets of four to hold counters for a card game, probably the game of <i>reversis</i>, an old Italian card game, from which the games of <i>hombr</i>e and <i>quadrille</i> were derived in the 18th century. Such games were popular throughout Europe at the time, particularly <i>quadrille</i>. The four boxes were coloured green (for clubs), red (for spades), yellow (for diamonds) and white (for hearts).  The counters for such boxes were made in three shapes, shorter and longer rectangular pieces and also circular pieces. ","briefDescription":"Box with curved, hinged lid, painted in red and gilded, with figures from the Commedia dell'Arte, lined with silk and containing four ivory boxes for gaming counters","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Commedia dell'arte"],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Box for\r\ngaming\r\ncounters\r\nAbout 1750\r\nFrance (Paris)\r\nPossibly by\r\nMariaval le Jeune\r\nPainted and\r\ngilded wood\r\nMuseum no. 1444-1902","date":{"text":"2015","earliest":"2015-01-01","latest":"2015-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["1444D-1902","1444C-1902","1444B-1902","1444A-1902","1444-1902"],"accessionNumberNum":"1444","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1902,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Counter box [1]","Counter box [2]","Counter box [3]","Counter box [4]","Outer box"],"assets":["2019LN6519","2019LN7409","2019LU5813","2019LU2069"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-08","recordCreationDate":"2003-11-07","availableToBook":false}}