FLORENCE, OPICIFIO DELLE PIETRE DURE, CIRCA 1800

An extremely similar jade snuff-box, also inlaid with pietra dura musical motifs but of oval shape, is in the Gilbert Collection, London (inventory no. 1996.525), extensively discussed both in Charles Truman, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes. Volume Two, London, 1999, pp. 97-98, and in Anna-Maria Massinelli, The Gilbert Collection. Hardstones, London, 2000, p. 154. The latter points out that although 'the use of jade was not particularly common in the Florentine workshop, there are various documents of the period that refer to jade boxes'. She also mentions that the gold mounts for these kind of boxes were frequently executed by the Florentine goldsmith Clemente Capecchi. For the oval box in the Gilbert Collection, the preparatory sketches, dated 22 October 1795 and attributed to Carlo Carlieri, have been unearthed in the archives of the Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. Considering the similarities in the choice of the stones and of the motifs, it may be assumed that the Gilbert box and the present box are by the hands of the same craftsmen working in the Grand Ducal workshop.