Snuffbox

When decorating this oval casket, the goldsmith applied a wide variety of enamel painting methods, besides the coloured gold inlays on the top and on the edges. The cover of the hinged casket is decorated with a frame of delicate leaves. Inside the frame there are four tulip motifs varied by four scroll-shapes. The middle of the top, the side of the box, and its bottom feature six elongated, grisaille enamel paintings painted with gray against a light pink background. Two of them are decorated with birds one depicts putti playing with a goat, with a basket of flowers and with spindles, and another one a smoking sacrificial vessel with pigeons and flowers. The surface between the enamel pictures and the framing scrolls is filled with dark green basse-taille enamel the space between the scrolls and the tulips is decorated with white en plein enamel painting. The pictures on the side of the casket are separated by four fields. Their plastic decorations – a cordon festoon, guitar, bagpipe, drum and a book with torch – were soldered to the surface later. There are impressed proof marks on the cover and the bottom of the casket.