This is a beautiful early Antique Neo- classical Victorian silver plated biscuit box, bearing the makers mark for Munsey Silversmith of Cambridge Circa 1840 in date.
This exquisite oval shaped box has a hinged lid and features a winged Sphinx handle and is beautifully engraved with the Greek key pattern. The body features equally delightful stylised Egyptian leaf foliage trim. It stands on an oval shaped beaded base that rests on bun feet.
This container could house anything from sweets to biscuits or trinkets.
Whatever you choose to store in this lovely item you are sure to do it in style.
Condition:
In excellent condition with clear makers mark and no dings, dents or signs of repair. Please see photos for confirmation.
Dimensions in cm:
Height 21 x Width 21 x Depth 17
Dimensions in inches:
Height 8 inches x Width 8 inches x Depth 7 inches
Our reference: A2514
Please feel free to email or call us (+44 20 8809 9605) to arrange a viewing in our North London warehouse.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was born in Rome largely thanks to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, at the time of the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but its popularity spread all over Europe as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, laterally competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th and up to the 21st century.
European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c. 1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Rococo style. Rococo architecture emphasizes grace, ornamentation and asymmetry; Neoclassical architecture is based on the principles of simplicity and symmetry, which were seen as virtues of the arts of Rome and Ancient Greece, and were more immediately drawn from 16th-century Renaissance Classicism. Each "neo"-classicism selects some models among the range of possible classics that are available to it, and ignores others. The Neoclassical writers and talkers, patrons and collectors, artists and sculptors of 1765–1830 paid homage to an idea of the generation of Phidias, but the sculpture examples they actually embraced were more likely to be Roman copies of Hellenistic sculptures. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity. The "Rococo" art of ancient Palmyra came as a revelation, through engravings in Wood's The Ruins of Palmyra. Even Greece was all-but-unvisited, a rough backwater of the Ottoman Empire, dangerous to explore, so Neoclassicists' appreciation of Greek architecture was mediated through drawings and engravings, which subtly smoothed and regularized, "corrected" and "restored" the monuments of Greece, not always consciously.
The Empire style, a second phase of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts, had its cultural centre in Paris in the Napoleonic era. Especially in architecture, but also in other fields, Neoclassicism remained a force long after the early 19th century, with periodic waves of revivalism into the 20th and even the 21st centuries, especially in the United States and Russia
Dimensions in cm:
Height 21 x Width 21 x Depth 17
Dimensions in inches:
Height 8 inches x Width 8 inches x Depth 7 inches
Shipping:
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We require that someone be home on the agreed delivery day if applicable, otherwise a redelivery fee will apply.
In accordance with Distance Selling Regulations, we offer a 14-day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the item.
The item must be returned in its original packaging and condition.
Unless the item is not as described in a material way, the buyer is responsible for return shipping expenses.
Buyers are fully responsible for any customs duties or local taxes that may be incurred on items sent outside of the United Kingdom.
Returns will be processed within 2-3 business days of receipt.
