Gold, Jasper, and Carnelian: Johann Christian Neuber, Master Craftsman and Court Jeweler

Unknown woman

Johann Christian Neuber: Box decorated with an enamel miniature of an unknown woman by Christian Friedrich Zinke, circa. 1775–80. Photo: © Éditions Monelle Hayot. Photo: Thomas Hennocque

by Val Castronovo

Museum-goers can catch a rare glimpse of the spectacular work of 18^th century Dresden goldsmith Johann Christian Neuber (1736-1808), now through August 19, 2012, at The Frick Collection on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The one-of-a-kind exhibit of one-of-a-kind objects showcases some 35 gold and bejeweled snuffboxes (steinkabinetts), candy boxes (bonbonnieres), chains, buttons and other accessories decorated with colorful, Saxon gemstones (agate, carnelian, jasper, lapis lazuli), each rimmed in gold and numbered. Neuber, master craftsman and court jeweler to Friedrich Augustus III, Elector of Saxony, was catering to the elites’ taste for luxury and the growing interest in the natural sciences in the age of the Enlightenment. In a 1786 ad for his little gold boxes, the copy reads, “The stones are numbered and none appears twice, while a small booklet provides their scientific names.”

Known most of all for his cleverness and ingenuity, Neuber added Meissen porcelain plaques, portrait medallions and cameos to his highly stylized gemstone mosaics, which were typically intricate depictions of flowers, landscapes and geometric shapes. The boxes, some bearing a miniature portrait of the Elector of Saxony himself, were gifted to foreign diplomats and dignitaries by the royal court and were prized as much for their beauty as for their craftmanship.

The exhibit’s highlight, and centerpiece, however, is a piece of furniture — the Breteuil Table (1779-80) — which sits grandly on a platform in the Oval Room of The Frick and looks remarkably like a giant snuffbox on legs (which is what it is intended to look like; Neuber patterned it after a snuffbox, making it ten times the size of a typical box). Regarded by the museum’s curators as “one of the most extraordinary pieces of 18^th-century furniture ever made,” the table has never been seen before in the US and “never before crossed the Atlantic.” In fact, it has rarely been seen outside the Chateau de Breteuil, located just outside Paris. The table remains in the hands of the family that originally acquired it.

In 1781 Friedrich Augustus III gave the table to Baron de Breteuil, the Frenchman who helped negotiate the Treaty of Teschen, which halted the War of Bavarian Succession. The table’s top is lavished with an elaborate semiprecious stone inlay (128 stones were used), and displays five Meissen porcelain plaques “depicting scenes that celebrate peace and the glory of Baron de Breteuil,” The Frick’s curators gush. The table is of such quality and distinction that it is believed to be the very same “famous mosaic table” immortalized in Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past.

As was his custom, Neuber prepared a document listing each and every stone he used on the table. Viewers at The Frick can call up his original catalogue of materials on an iPad in the Oval Room, or go to www.frick.org to see it. And if you want to see samples of the stones he used in his little gold boxes, rock specimens — cool slabs of agate, jasper, red jasper and amethyst, a gemstone primer of sorts — are on display at the gallery’s entrance, courtesy of The American Museum of Natural History.

To view the virtual tour of the show, click here.

Oval box

Image above: Oval box decorated on the top with a hard stone medallion featuring a relief of fruit, and on the bottom a Meissen porcelain plaque (view of top), Dresden, c. 1775–80. L: 3½ inches, W: 2 inches, H: 1 1/3 inches. Private collection. Photo: © Éditions Monelle Hayot /photo Thomas Hennocque.

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Gold, Jasper, and Carnelian: Johann Christian Neuber, Master Craftsman and Court Jeweler

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