Snuffbox
This gold and enamel snuffbox is an example of the exuberant Rococo motifs that found their way onto a variety of luxury items, including these small cases for holding nasal tobacco that became popular during the eighteenth century. Marked by the goldsmith Noël Hardivillers, the box is decorated on the lid with a charming vignette that features an overturned basket of flowers tied with a blue ribbon, surrounded by S-shaped scrolls and shell motifs engraved into the surrounding surface and heightened with translucent enamel en basse taille, a goldsmith technique that entails engraving or chasing the surface of the metal with a design and then covering it with a layer of translucent enamel, in a similar manner to another snuffbox by Hardivillers in the museum (1976.155.5).
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