To Have and To Hold

This, the third volume in The Walters Art Museum Collection Focus Series, is a jewel-box of a book that explores the world of miniature masterpieces, luxury objects worn and used in Europe and Americas between around 1700 and 1900. Despite their diminutive dimensions, these treasured pieces are enduring testaments to the largest of human preoccupations: love, death, and pleasure.

Highlights include a snuffbox decorated with portraits of Louis XV’s grandchildren; a watch studded with pearls and diamonds made for Napoleon Bonaparte’s vision-impaired mother, which enabled her to tell the time by touch alone; a mourning ring containing the hair of two young sisters buried thousands of miles apart; two exquisite Fabergé eggs made as royal Easter gifts—the Gatchina Palace Egg and Rose Trellis Egg; and a tiny charm depicting a single eye gifted by a secret lover.

Often books about these types of objects focus on one specific category—mourning jewellery, portraits or eye miniatures; however, this book takes a is written for a general audience and adopts a broader approach, including a number of different types of these highly personal items. This title will appeal specifically to those with an interest in social history, art history, luxury objects, biography, and antiques.

Jo Briggs, Jennie Walters Delano Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century Art

Series edited by Ariel Tabritha and Josh Houston

Author biography

Jo Briggs is the Jennie Walters Delano Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century Art, The Walters Art Museum.

Table of Contents

• • Director’s Foreword
  • Introduction
  • 1. Love
  • 2. Death
  • 3. Pleasure
  • What’s in Your Pocket?
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Index