MEISSEN, CIRCA 1750, THE DECORATION ATTRIBUTED TO JOHANN MARTIN HEINRICI (1711-1786)

Details

A GERMAN GOLD-MOUNTED PORCELAIN TRIPLE SNUFF-BOX
Meissen, circa 1750, the decoration attributed to Johann Martin Heinrici (1711-1786)
Rectangular box with canted corners, the double-sided box with one compartment to one side and two compartments to the other, the covers and sides each painted in the manner of Watteau with figures in landscape vignettes, the double covers on one side of the box with Columbine and Harlequin dancing and facing each other, within shaped oval scrolling foliage cartouches against a ground enriched with bands of alternating dark-blue lines, the interior of the double covers with gallants and companions before monuments in idyllic landscapes, the interior of the other cover with Dr Bolardo riding a donkey with Harlequin and Pierrot standing by, a courting couple watched by an elderly procuress nearby, reeded gold mounts and three slightly flaring thumbpieces
3 3/8 in. (87 mm.) wide

Provenance

Baron Max von Goldschmidt-Rothschild (1843-1940), Frankfurt am Main.
Mrs Charles E. Dunlap; (+) Sotheby's, New York, 3-6 December 1975, lot 170.
With S. J. Phillips Ltd., London, 1997, acquired by
Dr Anton C. R. Dreesmann (inventory no. F.-215).

Literature

B. Beaucamp-Markowsky, Porzellandosen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1985, pp. 105, 139).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The scene on the interior of the lid is after Ravenet's engraving of 1739, after Jean-Baptiste Pater's painting La Marche Comique, two versions of which are recorded, one in the Frick Collection and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The 1975 sale catalogue substantiated the attribution to Heinrici by comparison with an almost identical plaque illustrated in S. Ducret, 'Johann Martin Heinrici, Miniaturist in Meissen (1711-1786)', Faenza, 1951, vol. XXXVII.
Another boîte-à-trois-tabacs with very similar decoration also attributed to Heinrici, is in the Gilbert Collection, London, see C. Truman, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes, Volume Two, London, 1999, no. 26, pp. 49-50, and in S. Coffin B. Hofstetter, The Gilbert Collection. Portrait Miniatures in Enamel, London, 2000, no. 90, pp. 138-139.

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