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Snuff Box (Tabatière)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The miniature paintings that decorated snuff boxes were depicted in intricate detail requiring complex technical skill. This box’s miniatures are painted with enamel en plein , meaning the enamel has been applied directly to the metal of the box. A different enameling technique, basse-taille , is used to depict the doves and floral borders. Here, the gold has been chiseled away and filled with translucent enamel in order to produce a three-dimensional effect.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineSnuff Box (Tabatière), 1756–57. Francois Guillaume Tiron (French). Gold and enamel; overall: 3.2 x 5.1 cm (1 1/4 x 2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Edward B. Greene, 1958.125
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