Details
A William IV silver-gilt snuff box
of rectangular form, the base and sides engine-turned within cast floral and foliate borders, the lid chased with a scene depicting the story of the fate of the philanderer Mazeppa, a Polish nobleman who was caught in flagrante delicto with the wife of a magnate, Edward Smith, Birmingham 1833 - 8cms.
See Frontispiece
of rectangular form, the base and sides engine-turned within cast floral and foliate borders, the lid chased with a scene depicting the story of the fate of the philanderer Mazeppa, a Polish nobleman who was caught in flagrante delicto with the wife of a magnate, Edward Smith, Birmingham 1833 - 8cms.
See Frontispiece
Further details
Taken from a poem by Byron published in 1819 and based on Voltaire's Charles XII, the story of Mazeppa was an ever-popular legend throughout the 19th Century. Music hall acts and Vaudeville acts in both Britain and America exploited the story, and one can even find Staffordshire pottery chimney ornaments based upon it.