Masterpiece of the Day: The Dinglinger Box, 1705

Enameled and Jeweled Box
Dresden, 1705
The Victoria & Albert Museum

I am always amused by this name. “The Dinglinger Box. Say it with me, “Dinglinger.” Love it.

So, here’s the Dinglinger (ha!) Box. This cylindrical gold and silver box has a cover which has been enameled and set with rose-cut diamonds in silver settings and four rubies.

The box is the work of Johann Melchior Dinglinger (1664-1731). Dinglinger was the court jeweler to Augustus the Strong of Saxony, Germany.

Precious Time: The Romilly Pastoral Watch, 1760

Watch
French, 1760
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This watch is truly a treat for the eyes. A masterpiece of enamelled gold is a quarter-repeating watch with panels meant to imitate moss agate. The reverse is painted with a playful interior scene of a handsome flute player surrounded by three others. The composition is quite intricate as a large armoire is shown to the left near a square stone column. These are counter-balanced by a cascade of pale purple silk taffeta which flows into the composition from the upper right.


Made in France, it’s a grand example of the practice of painting portrait miniatures in enamels which developed out of the decorative work of goldsmiths and watchmakers in the French cities of Blois, Châteaudun and Paris. This delicate watch is the work of the celebrated Jean Romilly.

The Home Beautiful: A Barge Ware Teapot, 1870

Barge Ware Teapot
English, 1870
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This little teapot, though it puts us in mind of the ordinary brown British “Brown Betty,” is a rather special model. This pot has a depressed, bulbous body with a frilled rim, and a domed, wide lid which is surmounted by a flattened knop (decorative ornament). It is glazed with a streaked rich brown color which has been applied with cream-colored sprigs, and garlands, and with birds in shades of green, blue and pink. A sentimental cartouche with impressed, blue lettering reads, “A PRESENT TO A FRIEND.”


The work of Mason, Cash and Co., this pot with its rustic brown lead-glaze and applied decoration is known as “Measham ware” or 'Barge ware', and is associated with use on canal boats.

Unusual Artifacts: A Silver Cow Creamer, 1758

Unusual Artifacts: A Silver Cow Creamer, 1758

Creamer
English, 1758
Sterling Silver
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here, we see a sterling silver cream jug in the form of a cow. Such items are often referred to by the unsavory name of “spewers.” I don’t like that word, so, we’ll call it a “creamer.”

Creamers such as this came about as the British developed a taste for adding milk or cream to their tea in the mid Eighteenth century. This was considered to be a better alternative to drinking weak tea in the Chinese style. By the late Eighteenth Century, creamers had become an essential part of the tea service.

Taking a design cue from the literal, creamers were often made in the form of cows during this period. Most of the sterling silver examples from the Eighteenth Century bear the mark of John Schuppe, and were made between 1753 and 1773. This example was made in 1758.

Most believe that Schuppe was from the Netherlands where such creamers in the shape of a cow had already been quite fashionable for decades. All of Schuppe’s creamers follow the same basic design of a looped tail and a saddle-shaped lid with a finial in the form of a fly. Cream or milk is poured from the cow’s mouth.

These items achieves an enduring popularity and many are still produced by various manufacturers and in a variety of media.

Now, I must note, that in Twentieth-Century literature, Bertie Wooster (for whom my Bertie is named), the hero of the “Jeeves and Wooster” tales by P.G. Wodehouse, found such cow creamers quite disgusting and they figured prominently in one of Bertie’s adventures in particular. My Bertie Wooster, on the other hand, likes any vessel which is designed to hold cream and has no objection to them. 

Gifts of Grandeur: A Pearl, Moonstone and Peridot Pendant, 1815

Pendant
English, 1815
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This delicate pendant of seed pearls mounted on mother-of-pearl is decorated with moonstones and peridots set in gold. The work of an unknown British jeweler, the piece dates to about 1815 and shows the sensibilities of designs of the time.

There’s a distinct reliance on the natural beauty of the stones that allows them to speak for themselves. It’s an interesting piece in that it demonstrates the ideals of the Rococo with a definite nod toward what was then modern design.

Sculpture of the Day: A Staffordshire Figural Group of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840-1850

Figural Group
Staffordshire, 1840-1850
The Victoria & Albert Museum

As we’ve seen, the very first Staffordshire figures depicted Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The two continued to be popular subjects throughout the manufacturing of such figures, and these are the figures which claim the highest prices today.


Here, we see a figural group of a man and woman who are meant to represent Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as they would have been seen taking a stroll in Hyde Park. The figures are lead-glazed earthenware and date to about 1840-1850.

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: A French Mahogany Arm Chair, 1870

Armchair
French, 1870
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here, we see an armchair of mahogany with gilt-bronze mounts. The arm supports are designed as winged sphinxes. This chair is the work of the French furniture makers at Jacob Fréres and is stamped as such. It is stenciled underneath with the inventory marks of the Palais de Tuileries and the number 27463. The number refers to its removal to the Garde-Meuble in 1826 from the Chateau de St. Cloud.

What’s curious is that though the inventory marks are genuine, the chair itself is a fake. It is not the chair that was removed from the Chateau de St. Cloud. It is, in fact, a newer chair from 1870 which was built on the frame of a much simpler chair. The original chair was the one which was supplied by Jacob Fréres between 1802 and 1803. Let’s look at the front legs. Aren’t they a bit out of proportion? The legs are, in reality, additions which were stripped from a table which had been built by Jacob Fréres.

In effect, we have a chair built in 1870 which someone has tried to give importance to by using the inventory numbers of an earlier chair built for Napoleon I. So, this is a con job along the lines of something Matt Bomer’s Neal Caffrey would have executed had White Collar been set in Nineteenth Century France. The forgery is quite clever and whoever did it took a great deal of time and effort to make it look convincing. Why? At this point, no one knows. It remains an attractive, if not poorly proportioned, mystery.