CIRCA 1755, THE MOUNTS PROBABLY CONTEMPORARY

Details

A Meissen copper-gilt mounted rectangular snuff-box
Circa 1755, the mounts probably contemporary
Each side painted with river-landscape vignettes with figures on horseback, at discussion, fishing and other pursuits in river-landscapes with trees and castles, towers and cottages, the base with classical ruins, within rectangular moulded scroll cartouches, the interior stippled after with a lady seated at a table in an interior, searching for something in a gold box, within an oval gilt cartouche with meandering foliage and edged with large gilt ciselé flowers (base with slight wear, exterior with minute wear, one side with small scratch, interior with minute scratches to central panel)
3 3/8 in. (8.7 cm.) wide overall

Provenance

With Lukacs, Rome, according to attached label.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

Lot Essay

The lady on the interior of the cover is derived from a design by Johann Esaias Nilson (1721-1788). His original drawing, which has a lady and gentleman seated at a table, is now in the Kunstbibliothek, Staatl. Museen Preuss, Berlin (Inv. no. 12056), and is illustrated by Barbara Beaucamp-Markowsky, Collection of 18th Century Porcelain Boxes, Rijksmuseum loan collection catalogue (Amsterdam, 1988), p. 34, alongside a Meissen box also painted with a similar lady, p. 35. A box with a very similar form of decoration on the interior, but with a different subject, is illustrated by Dr. Klaus-Peter Arnold et. al., 'Ey! wie schmeckt der Coffee süsse', Meissener Porzellan und Graphik, Exhibition Catalogue (Dreseden, 1991), p. 55, no. 47, and an oval box is illustrated by B. Beaucamp-Markowsky, Boîtes en Porcelaine (1985), p. 158, no. 114.

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