Gold Box (1728–29): Art, History and Details

Gold Box (1728–29) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (French, 1695–1750).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

With its central cartouche, heavy molding, and fluted sides, the design of this box attests to Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier’s interest in architecture. The box is further distinguished by a strong sense of movement, achieved through its dynamic contour, extraordinary level of detail, and the dramatic contrast between gold and lapis lazuli. Such small boxes, known as snuffboxes, were used to hold scented powdered tobacco that was inhaled through the nostrils. Made of precious materials and highly ornamented, they conveyed the owner’s wealth, fashion awareness, sophistication, and social standing. These personal, collectible items were often presented as luxurious gifts. This box was made for the dowager Queen of Spain, Maria Anna of Neuburg, whose coat of arms – along with that of her late husband, Charles II – features on the cover.

Object facts

• Title: Gold Box
• Date: 1728–29
• Creator attribution: Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (French, 1695–1750)
• Culture: France
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: gold and lapis lazuli
• Dimensions: Overall: 3 x 8.3 x 5.2 cm (1 3/16 x 3 1/4 x 2 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 2026.12

A detail from the museum

This is one of the two known objects that bear the maker's mark of Meissonnier.

Collection credit

Purchase from the John L. Severance Fund, the Dudley P. Allen Fund, by exchange, and the Sundry Art - Miscellaneous Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Nocq, H. Le Poinçon de Paris. Paris: H. Floury, 1931.
• Helft, Jacques.Vive la Chine! Mémoire d’un Antiquaire. Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 1955.
• Helft, Jacques. Treasure Hunt: Memoirs of an Antique Dealer. London: Faber & Faber Ltd., 1957.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.