Snuffbox

The oval box is decorated with enamel scenes of the history of Moses and the people of Israel. The bottom of the box depicts Moses, with the miraculous staff that he received from God. The sides are decorated with trees, bushes and two scenes. One of the scenes shows Moses, sitting in judgement, while the other depicts Jethro — Moses' Midianite father-in-law — visiting Moses in the desert. The inside of the cover, which opens with a hinge, is decorated with Moses sitting under a tree at the foot of the Shina-mountain. The outside shows Moses, angrily raising up the tablets of the ten commandments. Beside him we can see his brother, the Levite Aaron, apologizing for the making of the golden calf. In the background, to the left, are two male and two female figures, representing the people of Israel. They are dancing in front of the tents, around the golden calf that stands on the altar. The scenes are in chronological sequence from the bottom to the cover. Such representation of mythological events is very typical of German pieces. The pictures are not very elaborate, which suggests that the box can be dated to somewhere at the beginning of the 18th century.