AN AUSTRIAN ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX

BY JOSEF WOLFFGANG SCHMIDT (FL. 1769-1836), MARKED, VIENNA, CIRCA 1790

Details

AN AUSTRIAN ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX
BY JOSEF WOLFFGANG SCHMIDT (FL. 1769-1836), MARKED, VIENNA, CIRCA 1790
oval box, the cover set with an oval enamelled plaque painted on gold of young lovers wrapping a festoon of flowers around an altar of Love, the cover, sides and base set with panels of dark blue enamel heightened with gilt paillons, swags and green enamel foliage, within opaque white enamel frames
2¾ in. (70 mm.) wide

Provenance

Collection of Henry and Sidney Barry-Hill, New York.
Sotheby's, London, 18 June 1979, lot 55.
Christie's, London, 6 December 2005, lot 11.
with Tom Tavcar, Pforzheim.

Literature

H. and S. Berry-Hill, Antique Gold Boxes, New York, 1960, p. 164, illustrated pl. 158, opp. p. 165 (as Swiss, Vevey town mark, circa 1790, maker I.W.S.).

Further details

For two other boxes by this goldsmith see lots 292 and 304.

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Lot Essay

Joseph Wolfgang Schmidt is recorded in Vienna 1769-1836. During the period 1801-11 he is recorded at Kohlmarkt 1218, and listed as a Galanteriearbeiter 1802-36. A very similar gold and enamel snuff-box with paillon decoration and a central plaque depicting a Sacrifice to Venus by this rare Viennese goldsmith is in the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated in C. Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff Boxes 1730-1830, London, 1966, no. 240. A jasper snuff-box with applied gold decoration and paste thumbpiece also with his maker's mark I.W.S., 1774, is illustrated op. cit., no. 458. Other boxes by his hand were sold Christie's, Geneva, 15 November 1994, lot 32, Christie's, London, 10 December 2002, lot 62 and Christie's, London, 10 November 2010, lot 434.

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