cover image The Art of the Limoges Box

The Art of the Limoges Box

Nancy Du Tertre, Nancy Du Tertre. ABRAMS, $35 (144pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-4529-6

Before they were tucked away in curio cabinets, Limoges boxes (named for the French city in which they are fashioned) served a myriad of purposes for the people who carried them, explains Du Tertre, a collector and contemporary designer of the pocket-sized, ornately hand-painted porcelain baubles. She surveys the boxes' 300-year history, from their snuffbox origins among high society and near disappearance (along with the aristocracy) during the French revolution, to their recent return to vogue. Du Tertre also visits the artisan workshops where the delicate trinkets are created and reviews various porcelain production methods, teaching the reader how to distinguish hard and soft-paste porcelain and bone china, and the""backstamps,"" artisans' signature marks, that reveal where and when a piece was produced. This fine, straightforward volume is an indispensable reference for both serious and incidental admirers of the Limoges box. 216 illustrations