Lot 310
310
A CONTINENTAL ENAMELLED THREE-COLOUR GOLD SNUFF-BOX
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A CONTINENTAL ENAMELLED THREE-COLOUR GOLD SNUFF-BOX

MAKER'S MARK 'LFT', PROBABLY HANAU, CIRCA 1780, WITH PRESTIGE MARKS, LATER STRUCK WITH TWO FRENCH POST-1893 IMPORT MARKS FOR GOLD AND THE PRAGUE 'GOLDREPUNZE' OF 1806 FOR MEDIUM-SIZED ITEMS

Details
A CONTINENTAL ENAMELLED THREE-COLOUR GOLD SNUFF-BOX
MAKER'S MARK 'LFT', PROBABLY HANAU, CIRCA 1780, WITH PRESTIGE MARKS, LATER STRUCK WITH TWO FRENCH POST-1893 IMPORT MARKS FOR GOLD AND THE PRAGUE 'GOLDREPUNZE' OF 1806 FOR MEDIUM-SIZED ITEMS
Oval box, the lid inset with an oval enamel medallion painted with a young lady in classical dress with two attendant putti garlanding an altar of Love, within a bright-cut and fluted border framed by berry border interspersed with four vari-colour gold flower-sprays on sablé ground, the panels on lid, sides and base engine-turned with coin pattern within berry and flower-spray gold borders flanked with opaque rose pompadour enamel borders, the top rim of the side chased with pink and green gold foliate swags, the four side pilasters chased with pastoral trophies of Music against opaque pink enamel ground
3¼ in. (82 mm.) wide
Provenance
Sotheby's, Geneva, 19 November 1996, lot 301.
Literature
L. Seelig, Golddosen des 18. Jahrhunderts aus dem Besitz der Fürsten von Thurn und Taxis, Munich, 2007, p. 396 footnote 30.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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Rodney Woolley

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Lot Essay

It has been suggested that the maker's mark 'LFT' could correspond to 'Les Frères Toussaint' in Hanau (L. Seelig, op. cit., pp. 186-7). On the basis of this research, a miniature-set enamelled gold bonbonnière marked 'LFT' in the Wallace collection, formerly attributed to 19th Century Swiss manufacture, is now believed to have been crafted in Hanau during the second half of the 18th Century (C. Truman, 'Some German Gold Boxes in the Wallace Collection', The British Antique Dealers' Association Annual Handbook 2009/2010, London, 2009, p. 11).

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