CIRCA 1720, POSSIBLY CORK, MAKER'S MARK I.F

While the maker's mark IF in a serrated cartouche seems to be unrecorded, the associations of the Roche family to Cork suggests that the boxes were made in that town. There are two possible makers recorded in the Cork Freeman's Register of 1641-1741 as quoted by J. R. Bowen and C O'Brien, Cork Silver and Gold Four Centuries of Craftsmanship, Cork, 2005, pp. 181-182. The first is James Foucault, the son of a Dublin surgeon, who apprenticed to John Harris and who was working in Cork 1714-1729. The second is James Foulkes who was a warden of the Cork Goldsmiths Company in 1712 and is known to have still been living in 1727. Both are recorded as making freedom boxes.