Unknown Boy in a Ruff, Aged 3 years

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Miniature painting. Snuff box/Objets de vertu. Unknown Boy in a Ruff, Aged 3 years. Unknown Italian miniaturist. Unknown French silversmith. Oval, silver box with tortoise shell lid and base, the lid inlaid with silver piqué work with a man stretching into a palm tree beside which is a scroll inscribed 'CRESCIT SUB PONDERE'. Glued inside the lid is a circular miniature of an unknown boy in a red jacket and white ruff, inscribed in gold "AEta.3.1615". The tortoiseshell was carved from a turtle shell, which was heated and pressed to form the lid and base. Height, miniature, 52 mm, width, miniature, 54 mm; length, whole box, 8.1 cm, width, whole box, 6.2 cm, height, whole box, 1.6 cm, circa 1600. The box does not bear any hallmarks. Notes: The box was probably made in France circa 1710, and the miniature was probably painted in Italy one hundred years earlier.

Image data

Accession Number: M.82-1961
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Jaymes Sinclair
Image height: 801 pixels
Image width: 1024 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6 (Macintosh)
Filesize: 185.27kB
Exposure time: 1/60
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 22/1

Key words

18th Century Date Department Fitz_AA French Italian Material Medium Nationalities Object Type Other Keywords Silver Workflow _WF_AdOK _WF_KWD _WF_OPACtd _WF_PCtd box carved container hinged inlaid inlay inscribed inscriptions lidded objet de vertu oval palm tree palms receptacle scrolling scrolls silver pique snuff box tobacco box tortoise-shell tortoiseshell turtle shell turtleshell vignette

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            ""
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-2556189700 Accessed: 2024-12-22 19:54:13

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-2556189700
            |title=
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-22 19:54:13|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-187549

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa30/M_82_1961_1_201406_jas244_mas.jpg"
        alt="Unknown Boy in a Ruff,  Aged 3 years"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info"></figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>