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SNUFFBOX

Creator(s): Les Frères Souchay (Jeweler)

Currently in storage


About this object

The oval box is hinged. On the cover is an oval medallion containing a painted enamel scene of a pair of lovers in a garden looking at themselves in a mirror while two youths spy on them from behind a bush. Framing this is a band of gold laurel leaves on white enamel with a spray of green leaves and red berries in enamel on sablé gold at top and bottom. A similar band edges the bottom of the sides. Similar enamel sprays interspersed with round blue enamel fluerrettes edge the cover, the top of the sides, and the plain bottom. Around the sides are four panels containing harbor scenes in painted monochrome lilac enamel. Separating the scenes are four vertical panels containing enameled urns and sprays on a sablé gold ground. On the cover, the areas around the medallion are filled with chased gold flowers and leaves.

Object name:
SNUFFBOX
Made from:
Gold -- enamel
Made in:
Hanau, Germany
Date made:
late 18th Century
Size:
1 1/4 × 3 1/8 × 2 3/8 in. (3.2 × 7.9 × 6 cm)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
11.16
Class:
GOLD
Signature marks:
MARK inside cover: Fleurette (imitation of J. Alaterre's charge mark); Crowned P (type of Warden's mark used in France during the period 1884-89, but lacking the two last digits of the year); inside box: Crowned FS, unrecorded (unlike French 18th c. maker's marks), fleurette and P; struck twice on inner rim: Birds head ? (Possibly imitating the discharge mark for Antoine Leschaudel, 1744-50) LABEL B33 KAC/W/- 180 gms [Inside box]
Credit line:
Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973