Tobacco box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This box is oblong with rounded ends. The lid has openwork decoration in brass against a copper ground. A harlequin and two smaller musicians in the background are surrounded by pierced scroll and fretwork decoration. The underside shows a dancing woman surrounded by the same pierced scroll and fretwork ornament. Inscribed on front edge of cover, I. W. B.; dated 1781 on front side, among leaf scrolls. The initials and date were probably added at a later time. With lined rims. The brass sides are engraved with leaf scrolls, the decoration of the rounded ends consists of small squares. Two openwork tobacco boxes were sold at Christie’s in Amsterdam: on May 24, 1985, lot 368, and on September 12-13, 1985, lot 352.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art