Boxwood Snuff Box With Biblical Scene (rebecca). Netherlandish, 17th Century.

Carved Boxwood Snuff Box with Biblical Scene (Rebecca).

The Netherlands, late 17th century.

Measurements
8.8 × 5.8 × 2.5 cm.

This octagonal boxwood snuff box has a lift-off lid and chamfered edges. The principal lid panel is carved in high relief: at left a stone well from which a young woman draws water; a kneeling bearded man bends forward to drink while a second female attendant holds a vessel; two camels occupy the right foreground beside a stylised tree. The underside of the lid bears a lightly engraved name, probably that of the original owner. The base is carved in low relief with ruined stone arches in the immediate foreground, set before a mountainous landscape with clustered buildings and a single prominent tree on the skyline.

The carving is executed with controlled, economical toolwork — deeply cut drapery folds, recessed backgrounds and planar modelling of secondary elements — and the boxwood has developed a warm honey-brown patina from handling. Edges and high points show expected rubbing; there are minor surface abrasions and small pits consistent with age.

The subject is the episode from Genesis 24: a meeting at a well in which a young woman offers water to a traveller and his camels. The combination of well, water-vessels, a kneeling male figure and camels corresponds to this narrative and was a familiar motif for small carved objects in the late seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. The dense, fine-grained boxwood permits the relatively crisp detail visible on both lid and base.