MAKER'S MARK 'LFT', PROBABLY HANAU, CIRCA 1780, WITH FRENCH PRESTIGE MARKS AND LATER STRUCK WITH THE POST-1838 RESTRICTED WARRANTY MARK FOR GOLD

It has been suggested that the maker's mark 'LFT' could correspond to 'Les Frères Toussaint' in Hanau (L. Seelig, Golddosen des 18, Jahrhunderts aus dem Besitz der Fürsten von Thurn und Taxis, Munich, 2007, pp. 186-187). On the basis of this research, a miniature-set enamelled gold bonbonnière marked 'LFT' in the Wallace Collection, formerly attributed to 19th Century Swiss manufacture, is now believed to have been crafted in Hanau during the second half of the 18th Century (C. Truman, 'Some German Gold Boxes in the Wallace Collection', The British Antique Dealers' Association Annual Handbook 2009/2010, London, 2009, p. 11).
For another box by this maker see lot 422.