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Lot Essay
Francis Harrache is known to have entered a smallworker's mark as 'Silversmith att ye Seven Dyals in great St. Andrew Street att ye Blackmoors head St. Gilses' on February 16, 1737/1738 (Goldsmiths' Hall Registers Vol. A1 Smallworkers, p. 26) and is recorded at that address by Heal as 'silversmith and toyman' from 1732-1758 (The London Goldsmiths 1200-1800 A Record of the Names and Addresses of the Craftsmen their Shop-signs and Trade-cards, Newton Abbot, 1972, p. 164). The Poor Rate Books for the parish St Giles record Francis Harrache as a ratepayer in Great St Andrew Street from 1741/42-1753 when the house was taken over by the watchcase maker James Freshfield. Harrache is then recorded as a ratepayer in the neighbouring Little Earl Street from 1754 until his death in 1757. Harrache was one of the most prolific manufactures of chased snuff-boxes in silver, silver-gilt and gold during the middle decades of the century. His workshop also specialised in cast foliate teaspoons and sugar-nips, of which a set in gold can be seen in the Gilbert Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was buried, alongside nine of his children, in Paddington Churchyard on 23 August, 1757.
The present box is illustrated in C. Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff-Boxes 1730-1830, London, 1966, pl. 280.
The present box is illustrated in C. Le Corbeiller, European and American Snuff-Boxes 1730-1830, London, 1966, pl. 280.