DRESDEN, CIRCA 1750

Details

A SAXON SILVER-GILT MOUNTED HARDSTONE SNUFF-BOX
Dresden, circa 1750
Rectangular semi-translucent amethystine quartz box with baluster sides, the slightly raised lid sculpted with two pug dogs, one alert with raised head, the other curled asleep, each with ruby-set gold collar, plain silver-gilt mounts with incorporated wavy thumbpiece
2½ in. (63 mm.) wide

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 9 June 1986, lot 41 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C. R. Dreesmann (inventory no. F-159).

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 pug gained particular significance in Europe following the Papal bull of 1738 forbidding Roman Catholics from belonging to Masonic orders. Many Catholics formed themselves into quasi-masonic lodges and took as their symbol the pug dog. In these orders of Möpsen (German for pugs), the ownership of such a box might have replaced the model pug which all initiates carried during lodge meetings. For more information on pug boxes, see A. Somers Cocks/C. Truman, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection - Renaissance jewels, gold boxes and objects de vertu, London, 1984, pp. 270-271. Two other amethystine quartz boxes similarly carved with single pugs are published in S. Grandjean, Les tabatières du musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, no. 446, and in A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1966, no. 516.

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