304.
A ‘FAMILLE ROSE’ AND GILT SILVER TOBACCO BOX AND COVER
Qing dynasty, Qianlong period, mid 18th century
4,5 x 5 x 7,3 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3754.
The box consists of a porcelain container and cover painted with polychrome enamels of the ‘Famille Rose’ palette, the two pieces joined together with a gilt silver mount. The decoration on the porcelain shows a stylized floral scroll with lobed reserves, on the container with ‘birds and flowers’ compositions, the cover with Western figures on a lake.
The use of tobacco was introduced in China in the early eighteenth century by European missionaries, envoys and merchants, becoming soon very popular also at the imperial court, stimulating the production of small snuff bottles in many materials (glass, jade and other stones, metal, ivory, lacquer, porcelain). European subjects were favoured, especially at court, as they satisfied the desire for exoticism of the country’s cultural élite.
Less common than snuff bottles, snuff boxes were produced imitating those produced in most of the European porcelain factories in the eighteenth century which entered in China often as diplomatic gifts.
The example here discussed seems to have been inspired by Meissen snuff boxes from the first half of the eighteenth century.
