Cigarette Box

Maker Edward F. Caldwell & Company (1895 - 1959)

Date1917-1918

Mediumbrass, gilding, tin

DimensionsOverall: 24 1/4 × 6 1/4 × 4 1/4 in. (61.6 × 15.9 × 10.8 cm)

Credit LineReynolda Estate

CopyrightPublic Domain

Object number1922.2.174

DescriptionThe rectangular gilt-brass box with hinged cover is decorated in relief on the top with a male figure dressed in Roman battle gear riding a lion, holding a banner, and followed by another male figure walking and throwing a spear, all against a background of twisted columns enclosing Mannerist ornaments. At the lower right of the panel is a small figure of a child in drapery seated on a stepped plinth and playing a horn. He is balanced on the left side of the panel with a large urn of flowers. The two long sides of the box have at their centers a framed scene flanked by herms (half man-half pedestal forms, the term from the Greek god Hermes, intercessor between divine and mortal), twisted columns, and figures in niches. On one long side (the front of the box) the scene shows three female attendants addressing a seated male; on the other side (the back of the box) the scene shows a seated male copulating with a female figure. On each of the short sides of the box is a herm in the center holding fruit swags and flanked by seated figures, twisted columns, and large urns with flowers in niches. The inside of the cover is lined with tin, the lining having a rectangular inset to receive a sponge or blotter to humidify the tobacco contents of the box.
ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]

Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.

Status

On view