Snuffbox

Vienna

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Since snuff use had become widespread throughout Europe in the eighteenth century, small portable, airtight containers for storing grated tobacco were in demand. Carried in the hand or a pocket, snuffboxes always had a hinged lid and were made of materials ranging from gold mounted with diamonds and precious stones to base metals. Porcelain examples such as this one were also fashionable.

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