Most impressive collections of 18th Continental snuffboxes

[anikopol]

Hello,

This time, I do not propose to discuss specifically on a mark, but on silverthmith works.

According to your experiences, your readings, where are the most impressive collections of 18th Continental snuffboxes (gold or silver).
What come in my mind, without ranking them :
- V&A Museum, London, a superb collection that Gilbert snuffbox collection made bigger
- The Louvre Museum, Paris,
- The Met Museum, NY

less impressive than the three before, but of course not to neglect :
- The Wallace collection, London
- Cognacq-Jay Museum, Paris

It also possible that the Royal collection trust own a very interesting collection it this matter (the RC is maybe one of the most impressive collection of Sèvres porcelaines in the world), but if I am correct there is no catalogue on snuffboxes.

Other ideas ? Somme comments ?

[JayT]

Hello
There is a catalogue of the Cognacq-Jay Museum collection, published in 2011 for a fabulous exhibition of the museum's collection of boxes that took place in 2011-2012. All 300+ are illustrated. The catalogue is still in print and available from the museum or your favourite online source.
Hope this helps.

[anikopol]

Hi JayT,

As a usual, I see you have got a good knowledge of French reference books on silversmith works.
For this specific subject of snuffbox here is indeed the book you mentionned
José de Los Llanos, Christiane Grégoire, Boîtes en or et objets de vertu au XVIIIe siècle, Paris : Paris Musées, 2011, 548 p. (Cognac-Jay collection)
Which is excellent.

I found also two others catalogue for the collections mentioned in my initial post :
Serge Grandjean, Catalogue des tabatières, boîtes et étuis des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles du Musée du Louvre, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1981, 469 p. (Louvre collection)
Charles Truman, Wallace Collection Catalogue of Gold Boxes, London, The Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 2013, 352 p. (Wallace collection)

And generally speaking, I think that a short bibliography on the subject should mentions :
A. Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, Faber and Faber, 1966
A. Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Paris: Catalogue of the Ortiz-Patino Collection, Robson Books, 1974
Tessa Murdoch and Heike Zech, Going for Gold: Craftsmanship and Collecting of Gold Boxes, Sussex Academic Press, 2014, 256 p.
Alexis Kugel (dir.) (texts from Dirk Syndram, Jutta Kappel, Sophie Mouquin, et al.), Le luxe, le goût, la science : Neuber, orfèvre minéralogiste, à la cour de Saxe, Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau : M. Hayot, impr. 2012, 423 p.
Anne-Marie Claessens-Peré and Leo De Ren, Dozen om te niezen. Belgische en Franse snuifdozen en tabaksraspen uit de 18de eeuw = Boîtes à priser = Dosen zum Niesen = Boxes not to be sneezed at, Provinciaal Museum Sterckshof-Zilvercentrum, 254 p. (Sterckshof Studies n° 6)

[JayT]

Hello anikopol
You are building an excellent bibliography for your project. When I get back to my library I'll see if I have any other catalogues to suggest.
Good luck!

[gsmoggy]

Hi Members
I realise this is a very old post,
I thought I would add another fantastic book on gold 18th century snuff boxes I purchased in Munich ,unfortunately it is in German (great if you read German) it may be hard to find.

GOLDOSEN
Des18. Jahrhunderts aus dem Besitz der Fursten von Thurn und Taxis .

Die Sammlung de Bayerischen Nationalmuseums im Thur und Taxis-Museum Regensburg .

Lorenz Seelig

Hirmer Verlag Munchen.

Great quality book amazing boxes equal to the boxes in any other collections in the world.

I also have the book Catalogue of gold boxes in the Wallace collection (that is mentioned ) that also is a fantastic book, again spectacular boxes.

Regards Guido.

Blue box no 14 , pink box no 19.