bonbonniere
Summary
A loosely spherical box, slightly modelled and painted to depict the head of a pug dog, which is terminated at the neck in a plain circular mount with a hinged lid/base. The pug is painted in naturalistic colours with fawn and white fur and black around the snout and eyes; the lid/base has also been painted to represent fur.
Display Label
Gallery text panel Harold Raby Collection Harold Raby was charmed by English enamels finding them 'dainty and pretty, quaint and curious'. As a boy, he inherited a tiny, battered enamel box which inspired him to collect over 400 more items during the first half of the 20th century. These enamels were mainly made in Staffordshire and were fashionable from about 1750 to 1820. For Raby, they evoked a lost age of elegance and gave an insight into outmoded social customs. A local bank manager, Raby only had moderate means but he tried to buy examples of every type of object produced by the short-lived English enamel industry. He acquired boxes for face patches, snuff and tobacco, candlesticks, perfume bottles, tea caddies....... He even risked air raids to attend sales in London. Eventually, boxes outnumbered every other item and gave his collection an obsessive quality.
Object Name
bonbonniere
Dimensions
object: 5.6cm
accession number
1958.428
Collection Group
Place of creation
South Staffordshire
Medium
On Display
[G19] Manchester Art Gallery - Gallery 19 (Design Gallery)
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Credit
Harold Raby bequest
Legal
© Manchester Art Gallery