BY SENÉ & NEISER, GENEVA, CIRCA 1810

Details

A SWISS JEWELLED ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX
BY SENÉ & NEISER, GENEVA, CIRCA 1810
formed as a lion couchant, the cover realistically painted in enamel, the mane set with diamonds, the tail and outer border set with seed pearls, the base with a scene of a violent storm, with a cascading water-fall in a mountainous landscape and the sky lit red by a lighting bolt, within opaque black enamel taille d’épargne gold foliate border, the sides enamelled with fruits and flowers against a dark-blue ground within white enamel filets
3 1/8 in. (80 mm.) wide

Provenance

with Sotirio Bulgari, Rome.

Literature

A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, Woodbridge, 1990, pl. 743.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Sale room notice

The attribution in the printed catalogue should read: BY SENÉ & NEISER, GENEVA, CIRCA 1810

Brought to you by

Victoria Drummond

vdrummond@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2699

Lot Essay

An identical box, with the same maker's mark and scene on the base, though with the lion facing towards the left, from the The Palace Collections of Egypt, the Farouk Sale, Sotheby's, Cairo, 10 March 1954, lot 696, illustrated A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, Woodbridge, 1990, pl. 743, was sold Christie's, New York, 19 April 2002, lot 8. As boxes of this type were usually made in pairs, it is highly likely that the present box is the matching pair to the Farouk box. A pair of boxes with identical covers of two lions facing each other, the bases depicting deer, was sold Christie's, Geneva, 28 April 1976, lot 167. A similar lion-form box, though without the diamond-set mane, sold Christie's, New York, 18 October 1994, lot 203. This box is now in the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and illustrated in C. Truman, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes, vol. II, 1999, illus. p. 75. A related cheetah-form snuff-box, with the same maker's mark S N, sold Christie's, New York, 18 April 1991, lot 192.

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