拍品專文
A notice in the Daily Advertiser of 23 December 1758 described Anthony Tregent as the inventor of the enamel 'New Year's Gift' and warns that anyone imitating the calendars, each of which bore the duty stamp, would be in breach of patent and liable to prosecution. However, it is worth noting that John Sadler placed the following advertisement in the Liverpool Chronicle of 8 December 1758: 'John Sadler, by whom is just published and sold A NEW YEAR'S GIFT FOR 1759 being a snuff-box on which is enamelled a complete ALMANAC for the year 1759'. (E. Stanley Price, John Sadler (1948) p.80. c.f. The Mullens Collection, Christie's London, 18 March, 1987, lots 407, 409, 410).
Anthony Tregent was born in Geneva in 1721. One of three brothers who settled in London, he is the best known of all London suppliers of copper-based enamels as he signed a number of extant examples. He seems to have specialised in snuff-boxes, transfer-printed in monochrome for specific occasions, such as almanacs for 1758/1760 which give the fixed and moveable feasts and the eclipses of the sun and moon. A snuff-box in the British Museum is signed by him and inscribed 'A New Years Gift', with date 1759 as on the current almanac.
Anthony Tregent was born in Geneva in 1721. One of three brothers who settled in London, he is the best known of all London suppliers of copper-based enamels as he signed a number of extant examples. He seems to have specialised in snuff-boxes, transfer-printed in monochrome for specific occasions, such as almanacs for 1758/1760 which give the fixed and moveable feasts and the eclipses of the sun and moon. A snuff-box in the British Museum is signed by him and inscribed 'A New Years Gift', with date 1759 as on the current almanac.