BY JOHANN-FRIEDRICH BUTTNER (FL. 1746-1768), MARKED, STRASBOURG, 1754/1755, WITH THE PARTLY ERASED STRASBOURG 'RECONNAISSANCE' FOR THE PARIS GOLD CARATAGE OF 18.6, LATER STRUCK WITH TWO PARISIAN POST-1838 RESTRICTED WARRANTY MARKS FOR GOLD

Snuff-boxes by King Stanislas Leszczynski's court goldsmith Johann Friedrich Büttner, also spelled Jean-Frédéric Bittner, are extremely rare. The half-a-dozen known examples include an oval box, dated 1768, sold Christie's, London, 21 June 1999, lot 239 and another box sold Christie's, London, 11 December 1953; two ingot shaped boxes, of 1767 and 1768, were in a sale at Sotheby's, Geneva, 6 May 1981, lots 66 and 67. A rectangular box of 1762-1763 sold for SF280,000 at Christie's, Geneva, 15 November 1988, lot 237. An oval box, of 1767, is in the Musée de l'Horlogerie et de l'Emaillerie, Geneva, illustrated in M. Gauthey, Catalogue des tabatières et étuis de la donation Xavier Givaudan, Geneva, 1969, pp. 150-151. See J. Helft, Le Poinçon des Provinces Françaises, Paris, 1968, ill. 89 a. for more information on the Strasbourg mark.