Gold boxes at Hillwood

Magazine Antiques, March, 2003 by Liana Paredes Arend

English boxes of the mid-eighteenth century are quite different from their French counterparts. The boat-shaped bloodstone box in Plate III is a good example. The fanciful rococo chinoiserie landscape on the cover recalls the work of the great English woodcarver Thomas Johnson (1714-c. 1778). (10) The box was presumably made in a London workshop, where gold chasing had attained a high level of sophistication. However, this cannot be verified because in England hard-stone boxes encased in an openwork gold frame did not have to be hallmarked if the amount of stone exceeded the amount of gold. Mounting a cage (in a cagework of gold), as this technique was known, was an invention of the marchandsmerciers in Paris, (11) and quickly spread throughout the rest of Europe. A great variety of materials were mounted, including enamel, lacquer, hard stones, shells, porcelain, and miniatures.

If in the early eighteenth century snuffboxes were little known to the Russians, as the century progressed they made and bought them in notably larger numbers. However, the French apparently did not feel the Russians knew enough about them. In 1781 the Tableau de Paris felt compelled to remind Russians about the proper nomenclature and usage of these dainty containers: "You must know monsieur le Russe, that snuffboxes are called boetes, and you should have known that for quite sometime! There are boxes for every season. Those for winter use are heavier than those for the summer." (12) The box in Plate VI illustrates how closely the Russians followed the French models. The oval shape, the guilloche, or engine-turned, ground overlaid with translucent enamel, and the contrasts of translucent and opaque areas are all copied from French boxes. The man depicted in the center medallion is believed to be count Zakhar Grigor'evich Chernishev. Dressed as a field marshal, the rank to which Catherine II had promoted him in 1773, he wears the Star of the Order of Saint Andrew. The box dates to 1773, indicating that it must have commemorated his promotion. The cluster of Masonic symbols below the medallion points to Chernishev's sympathies with the Freemasons. (13)

The box in Plate VII, although not Russian, prominently displays a portrait of Catherine II reverse painted on glass, largely in gold leaf. This technique, known as verre eglomise, was known in ancient Roman times and used commonly throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It owes its name to a French dealer and picture framer, Jean Baptiste Glomy (d. c. 1786), whose specialty was the ornamentation of picture frames with sheets of glass decorated on the reverse. The empress is represented as Minerva, who combined warlike attributes with the classical virtues of wisdom and reason. The box comes from the most fashionable shop in Paris at the time, Au Petit Dunkerque, whose shrewd owner, Charles Raymond Granchez (w. c. 1767-1787); was made jeweler to the king in 1774. He regularly issued boxes that echoed the latest fashion, or commemorated an important event. This box bears the date letter for Paris of 1781-1782 and must have been issued to celebrate the visit of Catherine the Great's son Paul (r. 1796-18 01) and his wife Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828) to Paris in 1782. We know through the lively memoirs of Henriette Louise von Waldner, baronesse d'Oberkirch, that Maria Feodorovna visited Granchez's establishment and purchased many trinkets and gifts. (14) The choice of vet-re eglomise is not surprising as it was beloved by the Russians, who incorporated it in all kinds of objects, including furniture.