Dutch silver tobacco box
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Dutch silver tobacco box
Michiel Menningh
Den Haag, 1724
177 grams; 12.8 cm long; 6.8 cm wide
The oval shaped tobacco box is fitted with a hinged lid. The raised oval center parts on both sides are engraved. The upper side is armorial engraved, flanked by acanthus and floral motifs. The reverse is engraved with a mirror monogram JP, surmounted by a crown. Fully marked at the interior of the lid and the interior of the bottom. Also displaying an assay stripe.
A silver tobacco box is a personal item, in contrast to many other silver objects that were commonly used on and around the table. That personal element gets extra focus on this tobacco box because of its engravings, the family coat-of -arms and the initials of the former owner. Although the tobacco box has a rather straight forward oval shape, it breaths distinction due to the material it is made of and the engravings on both sides. The coat-of-arms corresponds with that of the PRINS family. The mirror monogram JP on the reverse also corresponds with this identification.
The silversmith Michiel Menningh was born on 24 August 1687, as son of the Hague gold and silversmith Cornelis Menningh (1665-1738) and his wife Maria Maagdenbergh. According to his short biography Michiel married Geertrui van den Toorn on 21 April 1715. She was the daughter of the Hague silversmith Johannes van den Toorn, a fellow Guild member of Cornelis Menningh. Michiel Menningh was registered at the Guild on 14 December 1718. Michiel Menningh was both a service worker and a flat worker, as can be concluded from his silver objects that have survived. A silver spoon (1721), a silver fork (1729), and a silver fish serving ladle (1723), are recorded in Haags goud en zilver. E. Voet Jr (1941) recorded flatware, a soup ladle and a candlestick, dated 1730, by Michiel Menningh. A pair of 1728 Rimonim by Michiel Menningh from the Sephardic Synagogue are in the collection of the Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam. Two silver candlesticks, made by Michiel Menningh in 1720 in our collection are probably the earliest known silver objects of his hand.
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