Lot Essay
A box with identical marks is in the Louvre (see S. Grandjean, Les tabatires du muse du Louvre, Paris, 1981, pp. 352, 443, no. 555.)
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BY FRANOIS JOANIN, MARKED, GENEVA, CIRCA 1800
Details
A SWISS ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX
by Franois Joanin, marked, Geneva, circa 1800
Octagonal gold box, the cover, four sides and base framed by opaque white borders and enamelled with vertical bands of white, blue and dark blue stripes alternating with burnished gold bands enamelled in opaque white with champlev garlands of leaves, the cover centred by a navette-shaped reserve depicting Venus and Cupid on a cloud assisting a young painter in a landscape, the rectangular corners enamelled in opaque white surrounding blue enamelled tondi containing taille d'pargne gold stars, very slightly raised thumbpiece
4 in. (102 mm.) wide
by Franois Joanin, marked, Geneva, circa 1800
Octagonal gold box, the cover, four sides and base framed by opaque white borders and enamelled with vertical bands of white, blue and dark blue stripes alternating with burnished gold bands enamelled in opaque white with champlev garlands of leaves, the cover centred by a navette-shaped reserve depicting Venus and Cupid on a cloud assisting a young painter in a landscape, the rectangular corners enamelled in opaque white surrounding blue enamelled tondi containing taille d'pargne gold stars, very slightly raised thumbpiece
4 in. (102 mm.) wide
Provenance
Sotheby's, London, 10 December 1973, lot 90 (1,350 to Bentley).