Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Heart-Shaped Toilet Case
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Small precious cases like this example often contained women's toiletries or sewing tools. This elaborate, heart-shaped case contains two glass scent bottles with gold stoppers, a mirror, a folding ivory writing tablet, a gold bodkin, two gold toothpicks, and a miniature pair of gold tweezers in small, perfectly fitting compartments. A hollow casing for a lead pencil has a silver top set with a diamond for writing on glass. The button used to open the case and the floral element on its front as well as the oval ornament on its top are executed in silver set with diamonds and emeralds.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
| 2010 | Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry. El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso. |
| 2006-2009 | Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum. Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 1984 | Objects of Vertu: Precious Works of the Eighteenth Century. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
Geographies
Germany (Place of Origin)
Measurements
2 3/8 x 1 3/4 in. (6.03 x 4.45 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
57.842