Snuff box, soft-paste porcelain, Capo di Monte, 1750

Shells and shapes inspired by shells were popular in the middle of the eighteenth century as they were seen as a perfect expression of the prevailing rococo fashion of the day. Indeed the word 'rococo' derives from the French term 'rocailles ' used to describe the ornament of shell-incrusted rocks found in fashionable grottoes and other architectural structures.

At this time, the taking of snuff (finely-ground and blended tobacco) was considered a very fashionable past-time and the snuff-box became a necessary accessory for any person of taste and refinement. Different types of shell-shaped snuff boxes are found in precious metals, enamel and porcelain as the natural form is an ideal shape for a small box with a hinged cover. At the Capodimonte porcelain factory in Naples boxes of this shape were some of the earliest items made and are described in the records as having small ' fruttiglie de mare ' (fruits of the sea), on their covers. Snuff boxes were often given as gifts between those romanticaly involved, or would-be romantically involved. This idea is reinforced here by the finely painted interior of the box.

The scene depicts Dido, Queen of Carthage, the tragic heroine from the classical text, Virgil's Aeneid, after her abandonment by the Trojan warrior Aeneas. Snuff box of soft-paste porcelain mounted in copper gilt and painted with enamels. In the shape of a series of overlapping bivalve and other sea-shells. The larger shells outside are white and the smaller shells are scattered over them. Inside, the well is entirely covered with gilding. On the inside of the cover is painted the figure of a young female reclining on a bed. In the distance is a two-masted vessel of the Fleet at anchor. The subject has been identified as 'Didone abbandonata' (Dido/Didone, Queen of Carthage, abandoned).