Terms and conditions of use
Covered spice box
(c. 1770)
- 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
- Not on display
- 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.