Lot Essay
For a box with the same maker's mark, see Serge Grandjean, Les tabatières du musée du Louvre, Paris 1981, nr 589.
Details
A SWISS PEARL-SET AND ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX
maker's mark MB&I, Geneva, circa 1810
Rectangular gold box with canted corners, all sides enamelled in translucent blue on a guilloché lozenge pattern, the cover set with a rectangular enamel plaque bordered by half-pearls, depicting Minerva and a young woman holding a laurel-wreath, admiring a marble head of Alexander the Great on a column, the gold borders engraved with acanthus on a sky-blue opaque enamel band, the sides and base further edged with opaque white enamel stripes -- 9.3 cm wide, slight reenamelling
maker's mark MB&I, Geneva, circa 1810
Rectangular gold box with canted corners, all sides enamelled in translucent blue on a guilloché lozenge pattern, the cover set with a rectangular enamel plaque bordered by half-pearls, depicting Minerva and a young woman holding a laurel-wreath, admiring a marble head of Alexander the Great on a column, the gold borders engraved with acanthus on a sky-blue opaque enamel band, the sides and base further edged with opaque white enamel stripes -- 9.3 cm wide, slight reenamelling
Provenance
Acquired from A la Vieille Russie, New York