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Covered spice box

Covered spice box
 (c. 1770)

Medium
earthenware
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Patricia Begg OAM Bequest, 2024
© Public Domain
Gallery location
17th & 18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
 

About this work

This compartmentalised spice box with its swivelling lid would have contained pepper, cloves and nutmeg, to be taken as digestives following the main course or as palette cleansers between courses. The consumption of spices no doubt also masked bad breath caused by rotting teeth. The spice box form originally derived from a silver form, but such boxes were produced in both porcelain and earthenware during the eighteenth century.

Artwork Details

Medium
earthenware
Measurements
8.6 × 12.8 × 4.9 cm (overall)
Accession Number
2024.480.a-b
Department
International Decorative Arts
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Patricia Begg OAM Bequest, 2024
© Public Domain
Gallery location
17th & 18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International

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