CategoriesTableware, Vessels, and Objects
Objets de Vertu
Small luxury objects of exceptional workmanship, such as gold boxes, étuis, automata and miniature carvings, made for connoisseurs.
No works indexed yet · 10 related artists
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About
The term comes from the Italian virtù, a taste for fine and curious things, and it describes small objects prized more for their workmanship than their use. In 16th-century Augsburg, Hans Schlottheim built clockwork automata, including ships that rolled across banqueting tables. Cornelis Bellekin carved mother-of-pearl shells with fine scenes in 17th-century Amsterdam. In the 18th century Paris goldsmiths made snuffboxes, étuis and bonbonnières in chased gold, enamel and hardstone, and Frederick the Great of Prussia commissioned jewelled hardstone boxes of his own.
Imperial Russia developed a brilliant enamel tradition, from the court goldsmiths Keibel to Moscow workshops such as Kuzmichev, whose painted and cloisonné enamels revived old Russian ornament. In Japan, the lacquer artist Murose Kazumi continues the maki-e tradition of gold sprinkled into lacquer. Look at hinges that close without a gap, crisp chasing and makers' marks, often best seen with a magnifying glass.
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