Lot Essay
According to C. Le Corbeiller (European and American Snuff-boxes 1730-1830, London, 1966, p. 38, 'It is as an enameller - and also as the first Keeper of the Royal Academy - that Moser is chiefly remembered. However, no signed enamels by him are known and it is impossible to attribute work to him with any certainty'. Since 1966, at least two signed enamels by him have come to light; the famous nécessaire from the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund (Sotheby's, Geneva, 15 May 1990, lot 47, sold for SFr. 440,000), also illustrated in Sturzenegger-Stiftung Schaffhausen im Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen, Katalog der Erwerbungen 1987-1991, Schaffhausen, 1992, no. 35, pp. 88-89). A similar enamel watchase signed by Moser is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Schaffhauser Kunst und Kultur im 18. Jahrhundert, Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen, 1983, p. 37. Moser painted for King George III a double portrait of his two eldest sons on a watchcase, now in the Royal Collection.