Pill or Snuff Box (1906–16): Art, History and Details

Pill or Snuff Box (1906–16) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Feodor Ivanovich Rückert (Russian, 1840–1917); House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918).

The work and its context

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

Fabergé’s craftsmen in Moscow became known for their work in the pan-Slavic or neo-Russian taste, hearkening back to 17th-century styles of Russian folk decoration. This little box for pills, snuff, or cosmetic patches follows on in this style with its scene of a romantic ride in the quintessential mode of Russian transportation, a horse-drawn sleigh or troika.

Object facts

• Title: Pill or Snuff Box
• Date: 1906–16
• Creator attribution: Feodor Ivanovich Rückert (Russian, 1840–1917); House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918)
• Culture: Russia, St. Petersburg
• Type: Miscellaneous
• Technique: silver gilt and enamel
• Dimensions: Diameter: 5.8 cm (2 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1966.466

A detail from the museum

Around 1900, ladies often carried little boxes for medicines, a pinch of snuff, or cosmetic patches for the face.

Collection credit

The India Early Minshall Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hawley, Henry H. Fabergé and His Contemporaries: The India Early Minshall Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.
• Habsburg, Géza von and David Park Curry. Fabergé in America. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
• Habsburg, Géza von and David Park Curry. Fabergé in America. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996.

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.