Sweetmeat box

Small octagonal box, its hinged lid and underside are embellished with applied decoration of scrolling acanthus leaves and partly gilded flowers. Known in French as a drageoir which derived from the word dragée for candies made of dried fruit, toasted nuts, and crunchy sugar, kept in such decorative receptacles.




This box was part of the collection of metalwork of Samuel H. Yellin (1884–1940), an American master blacksmith and metal designer. Born in the Russian Empire, now Ukraine, he settled in Philadelphia where he opened his own successful metalsmith studio in 1909. Examples of his designs are in the collection of the American Wing which illustrate the artist’s keen interest in referencing historical material in new and innovative ways.