Gold boxes at Hillwood

Magazine Antiques, March, 2003 by Liana Paredes Arend

The royal practice of giving gold boxes continued through the nineteenth century. In Russia, according to a visitor in 1866,

snuffboxes are given by sovereigns, in lieu of decorations, to those who cannot receive the latter There are three grades: Plain gold boxes, boxes set with diamonds, and those having both diamonds and the sovereigns miniature. The latter are given only to persons of the highest distinction. (21)

The box with the portrait of Alexander II shown in Plate XIV therefore must have been presented to someone of high rank. The miniature is framed by a row of thirty large rose-cut diamonds and surrounded by a design of vine scrolls and bunches of grapes in cobalt blue champleve enamel. The miniature is dated later than the box- not an unusual situation, for some boxes were given, returned for cash, and refashioned to reuse for official giving, an indication of the purely financial significance of such gifts, in most cases.

The firm of Peter Carl Faberge was the last great maker of jeweled boxes. The Iusupov music box (P1. XII) stands out as one of the most remarkable of all Faberge boxes. The box was a gift from Princes Feliks (1887-1967) and Nikolai (1882-1908) Iusupov to their parents Prince Feliks (1856-1928) and Princess Zinaida (1861-1939) on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in 1907. In shape and decoration the box follows French neoclassical examples. Six Iusupov palaces in sepia enamel decorate the top, bottom, and sides. The technique is reminiscent of the monochrome en camaieu decoration found on eighteenth-century French boxes. The border decoration of white enamel beading and white flowers with translucent green leaves is in the Louis XVI style.

The art nouveau box shown in Plate XI, also made by Faberge, is a tribute to the firm's versatility. Like many of the company's boxes, however, this one draws on the decoration of the past in its shape, which is reminiscent of the shape of a fourteenth-century reliquary made in Paris. (22)

Marjorie Post continued to keep the art of the jeweler alive by patronizing the French jewelry firm of Cartier, which had opened in New York City in 1909. It created for her an extensive collection of frames and other decorative objects, many made to her specifications. The rather plain cigarette box in Plate XIII exemplifies Cartier's masterful creations in the art deco style. The intaglio carved red agate on the cover is from the collection of Prince Stanislas Poniatowsky.

(1.) The word vertu has changed its meaning since the later sevcnteenth century In 1662 a "man of vertu" was someone with a special interest in the fine arts-a connoisscur and dilettante. In the eighteenth century the meaning of thc word had narrowed to refer to small objects of luxury (see Howard Ricketts, Objects of Vertu [Barrie and Jenkins, London, 1971], p. 7).

(2.) Quoted in Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis, Edith Wharton: A Biogrophy (Harper and Row, New York, 1975), p.374.

(3.) The design process of gold boxes may fruitfully be studied in the large drawings collections at the Musee des Arts decoratifs in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.