Snuffbox with the Family of Louis XV

Description The box is decorated with images of the children of Louis XV and Queen Marie Leszczynska: Louise-Elizabeth and Marie-Adelaide (on the cover); Victoire-Louise and Sophie-Philippine (on the base); Louis the dauphin with a kite (on the front); Louise-Marie holding a battledore and shuttlecock for a racquet game (on the left end); and Philippe, duke of Anjou blowing bubbles (on the right end). As Philippe died in 1733, the images must be based on earlier portraits.

Exhibitions

• Objects of Vertu: Precious Works of the Eighteenth Century. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984.
• Vive la France! French Treasures from the Middle Ages to Monet. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1999-2000.

Provenance Zoé Victoire Talon, Comtesse du Cayla (1785-1852), Paris; Maurice Kann, Paris; Charles J. Wertheimer; Sale, Christie's, London, May 9, 1912, no. 14; Jacques Seligmann, Paris, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, after 1912, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, after 1912