Snuffbox

Daniel Govaers (or Gouers)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Far from trivial, snuffboxes were the creation of multiple highly trained specialists such as goldsmiths, chasers, enamellers, and miniaturists, who worked together to produce these complex and diminutive forms of luxury. This snuffbox is marked by Daniel Gouvers, a Parisian goldsmith whose name can be found inscribed on the lower lip of the box. The dynamic shell, scroll, and balustrade motifs chased on the lid of the piece and on the bottom are typical of the Rococo-style snuffboxes that predominated in France in the early to mid-eighteenth century. Similar motifs can be found in another piece by Gouers in the collection (48.187.419). Inside, this snuffbox features the portrait of a woman holding a dove set within a dark landscape, a miniature based on a painting by Rosalba Carriera. Although the Italian artist became well known for pastel portraits of elite sitters such as Gustavus Hamilton, Second Viscount Boyne (2002.22), also in the museum, she in fact had begun her career as a miniaturist decorating the lids of snuffboxes, before eventually establishing her reputation as a member of Rome’s prestigious Accademia di San Luca in 1704.

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