A late 18th / early 19th century German 18 carat gold and enamel snuff box, Hanau circa 1800 possibly by Frères Souchay. A rectangular box with canted corners. The hinged lid has a central rectangular cartouche with canted corners. There are alternating engine turned bands, edged with opaque blue enamel reserved with opaque white enamel trailing leaves and scrolls and a chased foliate border backed with blue enamel. The underside and sides have a similar decoration, the canted corners with leafy urns in white enamel. Marked to the lid bezel with Hanau 18 carat gold mark (shell), to the base and lid with an incuse rosette, a V and a crowned S in an oval cartouche. The lid bezel with Austrian import mark for Vienna.
Length 9.5 cm (3.75in) Weight 93 gm
Provenance: Sotheby’s London, 18 Jul 1988, Lot 159
A box by Frères Souchay, bearing this Rosette mark, an imitation of French discharge mark Paris 1768-1774, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (09.127.2)
The box sits flat on a level surface, the hinge sits well and is secure, the engine turned decoration is in a good state of preservation. There are various losses to the white enamel on the lid, the underside and to each of the corners, there are also losses in these areas of the blue enamel. The marks to the inside are clear and well struck, the V on the base is a half strike.
£8,750