A Capodimonte (Carlo III) gold-mounted shell-moulded snuff-box and cover

CIRCA 1750, THE MOUNT INSCRIBED ESCALERA M NO 4

Details
A Capodimonte (Carlo III) gold-mounted shell-moulded snuff-box and cover
Circa 1750, the mount inscribed Escalera M no 4
Moulded and naturally coloured with various overlapping shells including oyster, cockel and scallop and with smaller snail shells and coral among seaweed, the interior painted with fishermen on the shore unloading their catch before ships and a rocky coastline, the gold-mount with wave moulding and shell-moulded thumbpiece (slight hairline cracks to base, minute filled chip to interior)
3¼in. (8cm.) wide

Lot Essay

The Spanish inscription on the mount of this snuff-box, indicating its location in a vitrine or cabinet makes it tempting to suppose that it left Naples with Carlo III's court in 1759.

This model exists in at least three sizes of which the present example is the second largest. Numerous specimens exist, witness to the great success of the model which is first recorded in late 1743.

For further extensive dicussion of this group of boxes see Angela Caròla-Perrotti, op. cit. (1986), pp. 234 and 247, fig. 190a and Barbara Beaucamp-Markowsky, Boîtes en Porcelaine (1985), pp. 528/529, nos. 483, 484.

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