PROBABLY FRANCOIS-CLAUDE THEREMIN AND JEAN-LOUIS JORDAN, HANAU, CIRCA 1790; MARKED WITH A CROWNED T AND J, A LAUREL BRANCH AND A PALM LEAF, STAMPED 709 ON FLANGE

This maker's mark believed to be that of François-Claude Theremin and Jean-Louis Jordan can be found on several snuff-boxes held in museums notably the Louvre Museum (see No.s 578, 579 and 580 in S. Grandjean, Les Tabatières, boîtes et étuis des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles du Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981) and the Musée Cognacq-Jay (see No.s 74 and 75 in J.de Los Llanos and C. Gregoire, Boîtes en or et objets de vertu, Paris, 2011).
François-Claude Theremin, Jean-Guillaume-Georges Krüger's son in law, set up in Berlin with André et Jean-Louis Jordan a 'fabrique de jouaillerie et de bijouterie', bringing artisans from Geneva and Paris. In 1794, he joined his brother Pierre's workshop making enamelled gold boxes in the neoclassical Swiss style.

This box, like the ones held in the Louvre and Cognaq-Jay, is set with an enamel plaque painted with an allegorical love scene in the style of Jean-Baptiste Greuze and François Boucher. The scene featured here depicts Venus and Mars exchanging vows. Venus was the goddess of love and beauty who attracted many suitors, gods and mortals alike. Married to the graceless and lame Vulcan, the god of fire, her true love was Mars, the god of war. Their child was the goddess Harmonia. Ultimately they were caught in an invisible but strong net forged by Vulcan, and exposed to the ridicule and laughter of the other gods at Mount Olympus.