THE PLAQUE SIGNED 'C. BELLEKIN', THE BOX MARK OF BAREND VAN MECKLENBURG, AMSTERDAM, 1786

The shell is signed by the celebrated Amsterdam mother-of-pearl worker Cornelis Bellekin (c.1625-before 1711). His father Jean Bellequin (c. 1597/98-1636) had worked with mother-of-pearl, however, Cornelis became both a painter and engraver and worked with precious stones and amber, as noted in an advertisement in the Amsterdamse Donderdaagse Courant of 2 February 1696. The German traveller Z.C. von Uffenbach recorded in his account of his 1711 Amsterdam visit that Bellekin's reputation as an engraver and carver of mother-of-pearl was unsurpassed, (see Z. C. von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und Engelland, vol. III, Frankfurt, 1753/54, p. 543). A similar box by the same maker also set with a mother-of-pearl plaque, though unsigned, was in the collection of Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann and was sold in his sale, Christie's, Amsterdam, 16 April 2002, lot 1021.