Tobacco box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The lid of this oval box shows three roundels surrounded by leaf scrolls. The central medallion depicts an outdoor scene in which a man is attacked by two villains with swords. A terrified woman looks on from a distance. The two flanking roundels are inscribed: Voor mijn schoon lief verheeve / moet ick nu laate mijn ionck leeve (For my pretty, sublime sweetheart / must I now lose my young life). The underside is similarly decorated with three roundels and leaf scrolls. The outdoor scene in the center shows a man, accompanied by a dog, offering a wreath to his sweetheart. Inscribed: Floora life mijn waarde glans / ontfangt mijn trou met dese krans (Flora love, my true glory / receive my faithfulness with this wreath). With lined and corded rims, molded edges, and foliate boders and sides. The inscription found on the underside of this box is also recorded by Julien van der Linden, "Les boîtes en cuivres dites tabatières hollandaises," Annales de la Société d’Archéologie de Bruxelles 15 (1901), p. 210.

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