Large silver antique minaudiere attributed to Louis Kuppenheim.
The silver minaudière is rectangular with curved corners and features a repousse cat with the front side of the cat on the cover and the rear side of the cat on the back. The case is silver with cabochon rubies on the side and top.  The pencil is on the top. The interior of the case has several compartments which open via the ruby tabs. There is a mirror which opens to reveal a tab for keeping notes and a damaged notepad. There is a thick silver chain which can be opened and attached to something. The case is hallmarked with the import mark and maker plus 900 for silver.   
Length9.5cm Width 7cm. depth 3cm. Weight 245gm
Although the minaudière does not bear the original makers hallmark we firmly attribute the case to Louis Kuppenheim a renowned German Silversmith who made designs matching this minaudière.
£3,200
 
Louis Kuppenheim (1824-1889) was founded in 1854 together with Heinrich Witzemann. They were located in Pforzheim, southwestern Germany which is known as the gateway to the Black Forest. In 1857 Kuppenheim started a solo business without his partner and moved to Durlacher Straße 1, Old Town street in Pforzheim. On the death of Louis Kuppenheim in 1889, 3 of his 6 children (Albert, Hugo and Moritz) took over running the company and in 1900 at the Universal Exhibition in Paris the firm won a gold medal for a paper knife. In the same year the company opened the first store in the Rue de Richelieu 67 in Paris.
In the 1900s Hans Christiansen designed some silver parts and pieces of jewellery, which were made by the Manufacture Kuppenheim. Christiansen was an important Art Nouveau painter and a member of the Darmstadt artists’ colony. In 1906 Albert, Hugo and Moritz convert the inherited jewellery factory into a modern gold and silverware fabrication and one year later relocated to 69 Durocher Street. Over the next 30 years the company expanded their business with mechanical workshops for gold and silver along with more machinery along with the death of Albert Kuppenheim and Ludwig (another son of Louis) taking over the company. After the war broke out in 1939 the company went into liquidation ending its 82 year history. During the heyday of the company over 200 people were employed by Louis Kuppenheim making it one of the most important employers in the jewellery city of Pforzheim.
In the more than eighty years of production some 100,000 pieces left the company. Kuppenheim made many items in small series, for example boxes and minaudières. A case with compartments which allows storage for several items in a small space, such as a makeup compact, lipstick, watch, reading glasses, or keys) and compacts and cigarette cases were made in different sizes and shapes. Many hundreds of different styles and a unique variety of shapes are evidence of the creative mind of this designer