Snuffbox with Mythological Scenes and Landscapes

Description This oval box displays Rococo gold work in scrolls and floral motifs. On the cover is a scene of Venus asking Vulcan for weapons for Aeneas, which is signed by François Joseph Bourgoin, a noted enamelist who worked for King Louis XV during the 1760s. Decorating metal boxes in enamel paint is extremely difficult as after firing the enamel and the metal cool and change shape at different rates. In addition colored enamels change color on being heated, and must be applied in the correct order, so the artist needed a high degree of technical knowledge to achieve the desired finish.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
3/17/1959	Treatment	cleaned
12/18/1986	Examination	examined for condition
12/18/1986	Treatment	cleaned

Provenance Allègre Sale, Paris, 1872. Purchased (?) by Dreyfus de Gonzales; Sale, Paris, June 1 1896, no. 1. Purchased (?) by Martin Rikoff; Sale, Paris, December 4 1907, no. 176. Purchased (?) by George Harding, Paris; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1914; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

Inscriptions Signed on lid: "Bourgoin INV"

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1914