Meissen Snuffboxes: Of the Eighteenth Century

Originally praised for its medicinal purposes, powdered tobacco emerged as a fashionable stimulant among Europe’s high-society during the eighteenth century. To accommodate this novel pastime, elegant ladies and gentleman of the era sought to complete their look with tabatières, or elaborately painted porcelain snuffboxes.
           
Meissen Snuffboxes presents more than one hundred of the finest snuffboxes produced by the European porcelain manufacturer Meissen throughout the eighteenth century. Among the first manufacturers to cater to the rapidly growing demand for these tiny treasures, Meissen developed a wide range of snuffboxes, each fastidiously painted by the company’s most adept painters and incorporating motifs from the entire Meissen repertoire. In addition to 250 full-color photographs, this comprehensive catalog includes detailed descriptions of each item by eminent scholars in the field, as well as contributions that discuss current scholarship.
           
Beautifully illustrated, Meissen Snuffboxes offers an incredible amount of information and shows how these tiny containers provide some of the most intimate insight available into the courtly life of the eighteenth century.

Gerhard Röbbig is the owner of Kunsthandel Röbbig, Munich, one of the world’s leading vendors of eighteenth-century Meissen porcelain.