Important Gold Boxes from a Private European Family Collection
A Meissen porcelain gold-mounted snuff box, the base circa 1740, the lid nineteenth century
Lot Closed
May 16, 02:14 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 CHF
We may charge or debit your saved payment method subject to the terms set out in our Conditions of Business for Buyers.
Read more.Lot Details
Description
cartouche-shaped, the base painted with merchants before a harbour with mountains in the background, the sides with a continuous harbour scene below a gilt band and gilt and black enamel strapwork dividers, the interior base gilt, the later replacement lid similarly decorated within borders of white and gilt scrollwork against a gold reserve, the interior with painted with Harlequin, Columbine and Scaramouche carousing before sepia trees, the gold mounts chased with rocailles and flowers on a sablé ground, the thumbpiece in the form of foliate scrolls, apparently unmarked
7.9 cm; 3 ⅛ in. wide
together with A Continental porcelain gilt-metal-mounted snuff box in Meissen style, nineteenth century
cartouche-form, the lid painted with gallant figures by the shore with ships in the distance, framed by four cartouches of quayside scenes painted in en camaïeu purple within purple-lustre and gilt scrollwork borders, the sides similarly decorated with harbour scenes framed by iron-red and purple scrollwork, the base similarly decorated en camaïeu purple, with scallop-pattern gilt-metal mounts and thumbpiece
7.5 cm; 3 in. wide
The Meissen snuff box:
Christie's Geneva, 9 May 1983, lot 96.
The Continental porcelain snuff box:
George Hibbert Collection, Christie’s London, 27 March 1868
Property of A. E. Treherne Esq., Replica Shoes ’s London, 9 July 1957, lot 156
Sotheby’s London, 25 May 1982, lot 250.
The interior scene of the Meissen snuff box may derive in part from a series of twelve engravings The Amours of Columbine by Petrus Schenck (1693-1775), after drawings by Gérard-Joseph Xavery (1700-1747). The scene can be seen in another Meissen snuff box, sold at Christie’s London, The Property of the Executors of the late The Rt. Hon. Alexander Francis St. Vincent Baring, 6th Lord Ashburton, 19 May 1993, lot 47. A near identical snuff box was sold at Schloss Ahlden, 1 December 2024, lot 2194.
The Continental snuff box in Meissen Style was formerly owned by George Hibbert, who was born in 1757 to Robert (1717-1784) and Abigail Hibbert née Scholey (1721-1793) of Stocksfield Hall near Manchester. His father was a West India merchant and cotton manufacturer in Manchester with commercial premises on King’s Street, and the family owned several large estates in Jamaica. In 1784, he married Elizabeth Fonnereau (1765-1841), the daughter of Phillip Fonnereau, an M.P. and Director of the Bank of England, and the couple had fourteen children. George's extensive and varied collection of books, prints and fine art were included in several major auctions over the course of the 19th century: in 1802, 1809, 1829 and 1833, 1860, 1868 and 1902. Commentary on the 1829 auction gives an impression of the scale of his collection: ‘[the sale] occupied altogether forty-two days... There were eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-four lots, representing about twenty thousand volumes; and the total amount realised was twenty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three pounds, nine shillings.'
The Meissen snuff box with nineteenth century lid: Cranfield University used non-invasive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for this lot to screen the green enamel for chromium, which was not detected on the box base or sides, a result consistent with 18th century manufacture. However, chromium which was detected in the green enamel on the cover, a result consistent with later manufacture.
The snuff box in Meissen Style: Cranfield University used non-invasive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for this lot to screen the green enamel for chromium, which was detected, a result consistent with later manufacture.
You May Also Like
