A GERMAN ROYAL GOLD PRESENTATION SNUFF-BOX

BY JOHANN GEORGE HOSSAUER (FL. 1820-1857), BERLIN, CIRCA 1850, STAMPED WITH A 14 CARAT GOLD MARK

Details

A GERMAN ROYAL GOLD PRESENTATION SNUFF-BOX
BY JOHANN GEORGE HOSSAUER (FL. 1820-1857), BERLIN, CIRCA 1850, STAMPED WITH A 14 CARAT GOLD MARK
cartouche-shaped box, the cover and lobed baluster sides engraved with floral scrolls, strapwork and rocaille on a guilloché ground, the cover centred by a scrolling polished gold reserve engraved with foliate letter 'F', a royal crown above, the base engine-turned with a basket-weave pattern, flaring wavy flanged thumbpiece
3½ in. (88 mm.) wide
4 oz. (127 gr.)

Provenance

Christie's, London, 9 December 2003, lot 200.

Exhibited

Berlin, Charlottenburg Castle, 'Gold und Silber für den König', 1998, no. 112, illustrated in colour p. 228 as the only gold box by Hossauer hitherto recorded.

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Lot Essay

The 1998 exhibition catalogue suggests that the royal cypher refers to Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Carl, Prince of Prussia (1831-1888), later Emperor Frederick III of Prussia from March to June 1888. He was the only son of Emperor William I of Prussia (1797-1888) and married Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, and was succeeded by his son Emperor William II.
Johann George Hossauer was the leading Prussian silversmith who received commissions from many renowned patrons and designers. The great neoclassical architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel called him 'the most skillful and the only one in Berlin who has command of the latest technical means', M. Snodin, Karl Friedrich Schinkel: A Universal Man, Yale, New Haven, 1991, p. 189.

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