Purse-Shaped Vinaigrette 1818 - 1819

This is a purse-shaped vinaigrette, made from silver by Joseph Willmore, probably sometime in the early 1800s. What’s a vinaigrette doing in an art museum? Well, looking closely, we can see that this small object is intricately designed and crafted. These containers held a sponge soaked with perfume or aromatic vinegar. They were particularly useful for masking unpleasant odours, or for warding off illness, in an era when public sanitation was poor. The purse shape connects this object to ideas about femininity and domesticity. Who would have carried it? What kind of social role did this object play? How did it signal the status of its owner? These are the kinds of questions an art historian might ask. By studying fashion, literature, and other cultural artifacts of the period, we can gain a better understanding of the role that objects like this played in shaping social life.