Garberg Granite Butter Box Attributed To Fredrik Ludvig Rung

Butter Box in Garberg granite attributed to Fredrik Ludvig Rung.
Garberg granite, gilt bronze.
Sweden.
ca. 1810-1820.
h. 3,94 in. ; d. 5,12 in.

This finely cut and polished butter box is a of a kind listed by Porfyrwerk, the establishment of the porphyry manufactories in Älvdalen, located in the Karelia region of Sweden, where, at the end of the 18th century, the exploitation of porphyry deposits, discovered by the pastor Eric Näsman in 1730, began.

This box, however, is not made out of porphyry but Garberg granite, or Garbergsgranitell, a material extracted near Älvdalen that seldomly appears among the productions of the Porfyrwerk.

At the authoritative exhibition dedicated to Swedish porphyry held in Paris in 1990, only two objects in Garberg granitelle were displayed : a Medici vase and an urn likely inspired by the Rosendal vase, both dated to the first quarter of the 19th century. In the catalogue of the same exhibition, two pages of a letter from Rung, the bronzesmith of Gustav IV Adolf, were published, and attached to this letter of May 22, 1799, was a draft catalogue drawn by Rung, in which appears, listed n° 23, a butter box similar to this one.

Sources

Hans Sundblom et Ingemar Tunander, Porphyre. La Pierre royale, Trelleborg, 1990 ; Håkan Groth, Neoclassicism in the North. Swedish Furniture and Interiors, 1770-1850, New York, 1990 ; Philippes Malgouyres and Clément Blanc-Riehl, Porphyre. La Pierre pourpre des Ptolémées aux Bonaparte, Paris, 2003.